


this tired world (could change)

by AMidnightDreary, SalamanderArt (SalamanderInk)



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dystopia, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Angst with a Happy Ending, BAMF Loki (Marvel), BAMF Tony Stark, Banter, Blood Drinking, Blood and Violence, Blow Jobs, Bottom Tony Stark, Captivity, Cuddling & Snuggling, Developing Relationship, Dom/sub Undertones, Dubious Morality, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Everyone Has Issues, Everyone Needs A Hug, Explicit Consent, Falling In Love, Feels, Fluff, Forbidden Love, Hopeful Ending, Hunter Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, Jealousy, Loki (Marvel) Does What He Wants, Loki (Marvel) Is A Little Shit, Love Confessions, Lust at First Sight, M/M, Mind Control, Minor Character Death, Music, Mutual Pining, Overstimulation, Poetry, Porn With Plot, Porn with Feelings, Possessive Behavior, Possessive Sex, Protectiveness, Rough Sex, Scent Marking, Threats of Violence, Tony Stark Does What He Wants, Tony Stark Has A Heart, Trust Issues, Vampire Loki (Marvel), Weapons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-05-11
Packaged: 2021-03-01 00:27:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 57,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23116210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AMidnightDreary/pseuds/AMidnightDreary, https://archiveofourown.org/users/SalamanderInk/pseuds/SalamanderArt
Summary: Tony makes a deal with one of the oldest vampires known to mankind. What could go wrong? (Spoiler alert: a lot.)
Relationships: Loki/Tony Stark, Natasha Romanov & Tony Stark
Comments: 310
Kudos: 735
Collections: FrostIron*





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Rabentochter](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rabentochter/gifts).



> HAPPY BIRTHDAY, SESIL. YOU DESERVE ALL THE GOOD THINGS. I HOPE THIS IS A GOOD THING. ENJOY. 💕💕💕
> 
> Thanks to Sal for beta-ing and for making awesome art!❤
> 
> Title taken from the song "Stray Italian Greyhound" by Vienna Teng. Updates on Fridays!

The red dot flickered and then disappeared, only to show up again just a few seconds later, in a different spot this time. Tony kept his eyes fixed on it as he crossed the street, making sure not to look around too much. He didn’t want his follower to know that Tony knew that he was being followed. To be fair, everybody else would have been clueless, but well - as cliché as it sounded, Tony wasn’t like everybody else.

The red dot had appeared on the HUD of his glasses about two hours ago, and since then Tony hadn’t done much more than walk around, his hands in the pockets of his coat. He’d tried to scan the creature following him, but that hadn’t told him anything else except that it _was_ following him. He figured it was a creature, not a human, because the red dot dis- and reappearing every few seconds meant that his fan got a bit tired of walking now and then and teleported closer to Tony. Humans usually didn’t do that sort of thing.

So, to sum it up: It was barely midnight, so it would be hours until sunrise, and Tony was walking through the no-man’s-land that was one of the industrial areas surrounding LA with an unknown being on his tail. Something he hadn’t ever seen before, otherwise JARVIS would have already come up with piles of information. But no, the damned red dot was the only thing the HUD showed, and since Tony had no idea what exactly it was, he just assumed that it was a threat.

A wonderful way to spend his Friday night, really.

Not like it was a very unfamiliar situation - Tony _was_ a hunter, and that meant that he was often hunted in return. He’d yet survived every encounter with enemies that had wanted to kill him, had efficiently gotten rid of humans and both human-like and not-so-human-like creatures, so Tony wasn’t actually _worried._ Actually, he was intrigued; it wasn’t often that something new turned up on the agenda. 

Tony liked new things.

He had several safe houses in the United States - or in what was left of them, anyway - and as soon as he’d seen that red dot, he had decided to head to one of them. His parents had left them to him, but Tony had improved them a lot since they had died. He preferred to fight in his own territory, even though that meant letting that whatever-it-was _into_ his territory. He was surprised that his follower hadn’t attacked him yet. It seemed… curious, somehow, as if it wanted to see where Tony was going, what he was planning. That could mean two things. Either that thing was just some nosy creature that didn’t have anything better to do, or it was playing with its prey.

Patient predators were the most dangerous ones. And Tony would know; he was one of them.

The Thing - by now interesting enough that it deserved the capital letter - was still close behind him when Tony finally reached his safe house. It was one of the factory buildings that had once, a long time ago, belonged to Stark Industries. There was more than enough space in it to fight, and also more than enough weapons to win. 

The door opened for him as soon as glanced at it, and JARVIS kept it open for a bit, just long enough for the red dot to follow Tony inside. Oddly enough, it didn’t do that.

Tony didn’t turn back to the still open door. Instead, he made his way up a flight of stairs that led up to one of his many desks. The screens were already brightly lit for him, and Tony took off his leather coat and threw it over the backrest of the desk chair.

The red dot still hadn’t moved.

“Don’t you want to come in?” Tony asked and leaned down, looking at the computer screens over the edge of his glasses. Now that the creature was closer to JARVIS sensors, the AI could come up with a bit more information, but it still wasn’t much.

The Thing was very cold. The heat-detecting camera showed a flickering silhouette in different shades of blue and white that looked vaguely human-shaped. That together with the fact that his visitor apparently needed to be invited made Tony’s blood run a little cold, but he was still far from freaking out.

He got a teeny tiny bit closer to freaking out when the Thing entered the building after Tony’s question. Because while an invitation had been implied, it hadn’t been explicitly given, and _that_ meant that this wasn’t your usual humanoid leech - this one was much, much more dangerous.

Tony pressed a few keys and with that gave the command for lockdown. The door slid shut, and now Tony and his new friend were surrounded by metal that was thick enough and also enriched by enough silver and salt and lots of other toxic things that _no_ being could possibly make it out of this building without Tony’s permission.

Tony pushed up his glasses and straightened, letting his eyes scan the wide hall as if searching. He knew exactly where the Thing was standing, knew that it moved along as Tony made his way back down the stairs, probably keeping a clear line of sight. 

“Alright,” Tony said, stopping half-way down the stairs. “There's a few things we could do now, but given that you haven't even shown me your face yet - “

He took one of his guns out of the holster and pointed it straight at the place where the red dot was still blinking. He cocked it with a little more flamboyance than strictly necessary and raised a brow at his still invisible opponent.

“- I suggest we do this the old fashioned way.”

A few seconds passed. Tony stayed where he was and kept his finger on the trigger, waiting for the Thing to make its move. When it did, Tony didn't even flinch, he just watched while the air frizzled and shifted until it finally gave way to what was indeed a human-shaped being. A man-shaped being, to be precise, with almost too white skin and shoulder-long hair that was as black as a starless night sky. Taller than Tony, though that wasn't a very difficult feat to achieve, and sporting the greenest fucking eyes Tony had ever seen.

The Thing was - well. The thing was that the Thing was goddamn gorgeous.

Tony narrowed his eyes. Ignored the way his heartbeat quickened at the sight of the stranger, how his breath wanted to catch in his throat and his eyes threatened to widen. None of that was a proper reaction, they were all just _symptoms._ And Tony knew them very, very well.

He recognized a vampire when he saw one, and he had been in the presence of so many of them that he was barely affected by them anymore. The last time that he'd been slack-jawed and wide-eyed, a deer in the headlights that was ignorant of the crash that was bound to come, had been more than ten years ago. Making himself resistant to a vampire’s, for lack of a better word, _aura_ had been goddamn unpleasant, but it had also been worth it. Killing someone was much easier when they didn’t make you swoon.

That _this_ vampire affected Tony like this was not a good sign.

The black-haired creature that had once been a man raised his hands and spread his fingers, palms to Tony in the universal gesture of _do not be afraid. I come in peace._

_And as soon as you believe that, I will probably kill you, because you didn't actually think you can trust something like me, did you?_

No. No, Tony didn't think that, and judging by the vampire's smirk, he knew that Tony thought that he was as full of shit as an admittingly _very_ charismatic vampire could possibly be.

“Do you always greet your guests by holding them at gunpoint?” He asked, his voice smooth and calm and so deep that Tony almost fucking _shivered._

Only almost, though, because Tony Stark was far too stubborn to shiver. 

“Yes,” he said. “Don't you?”

The vampire smiled. His teeth were perfectly white, no fangs to be seen. “I do not often have guests, I'm afraid.”

“Gee, I wonder why,” Tony drawled. 

“Yes, I admit it's not very surprising.” The vampire arched a brow in a manner that was unfairly elegant. “ _Are_ you going to shoot me now or not?”

“Depends,” Tony replied. “You're one of the old ones.”

The smile broadened. “Oh, yes. That I am.”

Right. Perfect. That wasn't a problem at all.

_Shit._

See, Tony had killed many, many vampires. He had also killed two Elders, but none of them had oozed power like this one did. And while Tony only used the best and most effective weapons, he doubted that this guy would let himself be shot, let alone killed. Tony always carried at least two guns, one loaded with silver bullets, the other one with bullets made of the finest ash wood you could find, dipped in holy water for good measure. Sadly, both wouldn't be enough to kill this one, even if Tony had managed to hit him.

“Well, if you do want to shoot me,” the vampire said, almost politely, “I'd ask you to try it soon. I don't have all night.”

“Somehow, I think shooting you wouldn't lead to anything that would be worth losing a bullet,” Tony replied, and the vampire smiled again.

“I'd have to agree. You are using holy water, aren't you? It reeks.”

Tony's lips twitched into a slightly strained smirk. “Not a fan of the smell?”

“No, although not for the reasons you might be hoping for.” For the first time, the vampire yanked his too green eyes away from Tony and looked around. Slow, almost lazy, but not disinterested. “I was born long before Christianity was even a twinkle in humanity's eye, Mr. Stark. Your god doesn't mean anything to me.”

“Yeah, I can't stand him, either,” Tony said. “He's a bit of a lazy bastard, isn't he?”

The vampire looked at him again, his expression unreadable. His eyebrow curved upward again, but he didn't answer directly. Instead, he said, “You _are_ Anthony Edward Stark, yes?”

“The one and only,” Tony confirmed, because there really was no point in denying it. The vampire knew his name and had found him; playing dumb wouldn't get Tony anywhere.

“Good,” the vampire purred, and his smile wanted to do _things_ to Tony. 

Tony didn't want it to do things to him, so he clenched his teeth and mentally told it to fuck off.

“I have to admit, finding out your name was a little trouble. But I think _Iron Man_ would have been too impersonal, wouldn't you agree?”

Tony wasn't about to banter with this far too handsome vampire who probably wanted to eat him. That would have been stupid, and he wasn’t stupid, and even though some of his activities argued for it, he also wasn’t suicidal. 

“Darling,” he said, “ _Iron Man_ might be impersonal, but _Mr. Stark_ is for annoying people I don't like, so maybe you'd like to think it over.”

Ah, who was he even kidding? Of course Tony was going to banter with the far too handsome vampire who probably wanted to eat him.

“Anthony, then,” the vampire said, his voice low and oh so pleased. 

Tony was too busy keeping himself from shivering - _again_ -, so he didn't manage to glare at the vampire properly. He gritted his teeth, kept his hand still. “It’s Tony,” he corrected. “And you are?”

“Is that important?”

“Tell me your name, then I'll decide if it is.”

The vampire's grin was sharp, even without the fangs he was still hiding. He made a slightly mocking bow, his eyes never leaving Tony's. “You may call me Loki.”

Oh. 

Oh, fuck. 

That was important. That was _so_ important.

Tony stared at the vampire for longer than he would later like to admit. “You're Loki Liesmith,” Tony said eventually said, his tone flat.

“Yes,” Loki Liesmith said. “Hello.”

Alright, so Tony was damned. About time, really. He'd been challenging fate for years now.

He couldn't win against this one. Well, he could certainly _try,_ but Loki Liesmith was one of the oldest vampires known to mankind, and mankind collectively agreed that it was better not to fuck with him. Nobody had ever actually seen or talked to him, but he was some sort of legend among hunters, something you bragged about killing one day after you had a few drinks too many. Tony had never bragged about that, simply because he had never seen a real reason to kill the guy. Sure, Loki's body count was probably ten times as long as the equator, but in Tony's whole life Loki had never been the reason for any real massacres. Perhaps he simply let others do the dirty work for him, perhaps he was just too old and killing people for fun had lost its appeal. Tony didn't know and didn't really care, because he'd been busy enough with the monsters who _did_ cause massacres. When he heard about the green-tinted chaos that occasionally erupted in this or that city, chaos that took a long time to clean up but no lives, Tony simply rolled his eyes and looked the other way.

Sometimes, it was better to let the Elders do what they wanted. They were damn near unstoppable, anyway, and Tony had only intervened when he'd seen no other option. Now and then he had even _talked_ to them to find a solution that didn't involve manslaughter, and since they were old enough to have a clear head, they had listened. Only twice Tony had actually attacked, and he'd been lucky to survive both times.

He needed to be _especially_ lucky now.

“Calm down, hunter,” Loki said dryly, his gaze fixed on Tony. “If I were here to kill you, you would have been dead two hours ago.”

“Is that supposed to reassure me?”

“Yes.”

Tony looked at his guest, who had put his hands behind his back by now, seeming calm and attentive. He really didn't make the impression that he was planning to attack anytime soon, but fuck, people called him _Liesmith_ for a reason.

“Alright,” Tony said. “Assuming you're really not here to use me as a blood bottle, what _do_ you want?”

“I wish to hire you,” Loki said.

Tony frowned. “What?”

The vampire let out a somewhat theatrical sigh. “I don't enjoy repeating myself. If you -”

“Come off it, Vlad,” Tony interrupted, which earned him another raised brow he simply ignored. “My guns aren't for hire.”

“No?” Loki asked, sounding surprised. “You are an assassin, are you not?”

“I am a _hunter,_ and I decide what I'm hunting myself. Nobody gets to hire me, not even you, so you can go back to where you came from and leave me alone.”

Loki hummed, eyes narrowing slightly. “Forgive me if I am mistaken, but at the moment you are hunting the Titan, yes?”

Tony snorted. “Where did you hear that, huh?”

“Oh, nowhere in particular. Word has been going around.”

“Right. C'mon, do you really listen to _rumors?_ As if I -”

When Loki interrupted him, his voice was sharp for the first time, and the look in his eyes piercing. “You would do well to think twice before you try to lie to me.”

Tony swallowed and gritted his teeth, forcing himself to stay silent. Yes, maybe provoking the big bad vampire who could kill him with as little as a snap of his fingers wasn't the best idea. 

“So?” Loki asked after a moment, clearly expecting an (honest) answer.

“I don't think it's any of your business,” Tony said, and then added with a pointedly polite smile, _“sir.”_

He had never been good at not provoking people who could kill him with as little as a snap of their fingers.

“I think it is,” the vampire said, unimpressed. “I want to see him dead as well.”

Now _that_ was a surprise.

The Titan, also known as the _Mad_ Titan in some circles, was also a vampire, and a rather old and powerful one at that. Tony had indeed been chasing him for the better part of the last year. The Titan was like the head of the vampiric mafia, and Tony knew that he wouldn't be able to even try to reason with this one. No, this one needed to be killed, but Tony hadn't yet managed to get a hold on him. The only thing he had achieved so far was the deaths of many henchmen who rather died than reveal anything about their boss.

“Really,” Tony said, raising his brows. “I thought all Elders were sort of best buddies.” He smirked. “Then again, what the Titan does for fun isn't really your style, is it?”

“No,” Loki agreed easily. “Quite the opposite.” He paused, watching Tony closely, then added, “He has been… taking certain paths he shouldn’t have taken.”

“So kill him yourself,” Tony suggested. “Shouldn't be too difficult for you.”

“I would prefer it if a hunter did it.”

“Why?”

“That does not concern you.”

“Ask someone else.”

“No.”

Damn stubborn vampires. 

“Alright,” Tony said. “Alright, I'll do it.”

Loki's lips stretched into a grin. “Oh?”

“Well, it's not like I have much of a choice,” Tony said sourly, glaring at the Elder while he put his gun into its holster again. “And yeah, I’ve been hunting him anyway, so. But just so you know, if you want me to do it _for you,_ I’m demanding something in return.”

“Of course,” Loki said. He came closer now, needing only a few steps until he stood at the end of the stairs from where he looked up at Tony. “I would spare your life as a reward. Would that be enough for you?”

“Nope,” Tony said. “You can spare my life _and_ give me every bit of information you have.”

“Ah. About what?”

“All other Elders you know. All vampire chiefs you know, all werewolf packs, all demons and witches and other cute monsters you can possibly think of. _Everything.”_

Loki stayed quiet for a while. Then he said, “I will tell you everything I know about the Titan, because otherwise you would hardly be successful. But I will not be your spy, Stark.”

Tony pressed his lips together, thinking. “So let me give you a list of ten names, and tell me everything about them.”

The vampire cocked his head to one side. “Two. Two names.”

Tony snorted. “Eight.”

“Five?”

“Fine. Deal.”

“Deal,” Loki echoed, and held out his hand. “I do believe this is how your people make _deals_ , isn't it?”

Tony rolled his eyes and walked down the stairs, stopping on the last one because hell, Loki was tall, and Tony didn't want to crane his neck any more than he had to. He took Loki's hand and shook it, and for a moment surprise flickered over the vampire's face.

“What?” Tony said. “This isn't the first deal I've made, you know.”

Besides, Tony was wearing gloves for a reason. Skin contact was a risk sometimes.

“I see,” Loki said simply, as if what Tony had just admitted wasn’t odd at all. “I will be here again in three nights, with the information you require. Have your list ready by then.”

“Sure thing.”

A second passed, then another, until the silence became slightly awkward. For Loki, anyway. Tony found the whole thing rather amusing, even though it earned him the first proper glare out of those green eyes.

“What is in those walls?” Loki asked, somewhere between annoyed and - fascinated?

“Wouldn't you like to know,” Tony said, grinning, then turned to walk back up to his desk. “J, open the door.”

JARVIS did. Behind Tony, Loki snorted softly, and then he disappeared.

Okay, so.

Tony _might_ have a problem.

///

“Natasha, light of my life. Listen, I -”

“Didn't I tell you not to call me?”

“Didn't I tell you not to tell me what to do? Look, I'll be gone for a bit. Probably. But first you need to tell me the name of the guy who took you back then, because _-”_

“You aren't hunting him, are you? I told you to stay out of it, this is none of your business..”

“I know, I know, and no, I’m not hunting him. I’m just giving you the chance to hunt him. So spit it out, Nat. What’s his name?”

“Tony. Are you in danger?”

“Aren't we always?”

“Джокер.”

“Nat.”

“Dreykov. His name is Dreykov.”

///

Three days after Loki's… visit, Tony entered the safe house in the late afternoon. His list was ready, and he was prepared to drop off the radar for a little bit. He - or rather JARVIS - had also arranged a trail that would lead anyone looking for him to Uruguay, so nobody would think that he was actually hunting the Titan. In Uruguay, there was also a message waiting for Natasha, just in case Tony actually disappeared.

Disappeared as in, you know - died.

_“Sir, do you really think this is a good idea?”_

“Nah,” Tony said. He was sitting on his desk chair, legs up on the desk while he waited for JARVIS to assemble every bit of information about Loki Liesmith he could find. “It’s not a good idea. It’s a horrible idea. But it’s the only option I have, so I’ll just roll with it and hope it won’t get me killed.”

_“That would indeed be preferable.”_

“Right?” Tony grunted softly as he took his legs off the desk, scanning the results he could now see on the screen. “So, what do we have?”

_“Not much, I’m afraid. I can give you a quick summary.”_

“I’m all ears, buddy.”

_“Your business partner seems to be part of one of the oldest vampiric bloodlines I could find. There are reasons to assume that he, along with his kin, had imprinting relations to humanity in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. The Norsemen worshipped them as gods and described them as very powerful, but altogether humanoid creatures, which leads to the conclusion that they were already rather old by then. Younger vampires are usually perceived as monsters, not as gods.”_

Tony nodded; he had known about that already. He’d done some research about Loki years ago, when he’d been contemplating whether hunting him was necessary or not.

 _“‘Liesmith’ is only one moniker of many,”_ JARVIS continued. _“Other noteworthy ones are ‘Silvertongue’ and ‘Skywalker’. According to the myths, he is the god of mischief, and generally thought to be clever and charming, but also very dangerous. It’s impossible to tell how much of those myths is true, though. Loki made many appearances thorough history, but it has been centuries since he openly showed himself. I think you may be one of the few humans who actually know what he even looks like.”_

“Great,” Tony said. “Hopefully his enemies will never hear about that. What’s he been up to these last years, then?”

_“I cannot tell for sure. There have been incidents of various natures in eleven northern American cities, including Las Vegas, New York, Chicago and Toronto. They were assumed to be Loki’s doing, but there was never any actual proof. In total, two humans died, and about eighty were injured. If Loki really was behind those incidents, harming humans does not seem to be one of his goals.”_

“Yeah, he just wants to cause some trouble. God of mischief fits, huh?” Tony frowned. “Did you find anything about his usual whereabouts? A house, a lair, at least an area? Even vampires need a place where they can be undead in peace.”

_“Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything. He has been covering his tracks very well.”_

“Mhh. Anything about his family?”

_“I did find traces of an Elder named Thor in New Mexico, eighteen years ago. He was also one of the vampires the Norsemen worshipped, so he and Loki could be related.”_

“And the Titan? What’s Loki’s business with him?”

_“I have no idea, sir.”_

Tony made a face. “Well, that’s not much. Keep looking, J, maybe you find something else.”

_“Of course.”_

Tony didn’t like running into things blind, but now he started to believe that this time, he had to.

///

Loki seemed to like to make people wait. Or well, maybe his sense of time just wasn't the best; Tony wouldn't have been surprised if you stopped caring about that sort of things after a few millennia.

Anyway, the sun had set a few hours ago, and Tony was still waiting for the vampire to deem him worthy of his presence. Tony already wondered if he had hallucinated the whole thing, but then JARVIS announced that their “guest” had arrived.

When the door opened this time, Loki was already visible. He frowned a little when it slid shut behind him again, but then he just focused on Tony, who had some slight trouble breathing.

Damn him, Loki really _was_ gorgeous. He had to be freaking dangerous, too; Tony didn't want to imagine what his simple _existence_ did to unprotected humans. Loki probably rendered his prey speechless within seconds, and then they were blissed out and happy to have his attention before they could even realize that they were dying.

It didn't help that Loki was just Tony's type, tall and lean and with sharp edges, his greeting smile both a challenge and a threat all on its own. And his clothes… Tony hadn't even paid attention to that last time, too distracted by Loki himself as he had been. Loki's black suit was a little out of date - late 2010s, maybe? -, but it looked good on him, and that together with the green scarf and black coat made him into the best dressed vampire Tony had ever seen.

All in all, it just wasn't _fair._ Why were all the good looking ones dead? 

With an internal sigh, Tony stopped himself from ogling and made his way down to Loki. The vampire looked at him a little oddly, but not unsurprised, so probably he had caught Tony looking. Tony didn't let himself be bothered by it; Loki had to be used to it, anyway.

“Hey. So, is our deal still on or are you here for a drink?”

Loki looked at him, vaguely interested. “Well, I would not say no to a drink if you offered.”

Right. Loki’s voice had dropped into a slightly lower register there, and even though it was about the most thrilling thing Tony had ever heard and made his mouth run a bit dry, he forced himself to ignore it and put on a look that was as apologetic as it was insincere. “Uh, sadly I'm out of A positive, but I could offer scotch?”

“Ah, well. Maybe another time then, hm?” Loki smiled, his eyes sharp. “Scotch would be nice. Thank you.”

This was _so_ weird.

A bit dazed, Tony turned and went looking for the scotch. He really needed to steel himself against Loki's voice if he wanted to get through this alive, and he couldn't let the vampire think that Tony was _flirting._ Because he wasn't flirting. Why would he be flirting?

Was _Loki_ flirting?

It was hard to tell with vampires of this age, really. The younger ones never actually flirted with humans, at least not seriously; they just went and sucked them dry. But some Elders liked to _play,_ and Tony had heard of some who had even taken human lovers - or consorts, as they called them. 

_Pets_ might also be a fitting word, not that Tony was judging anyone.

When Tony to returned to Loki with too filled glasses, the vampire had taken place in the chair in front of Tony's desk. Tony was a little annoyed, but Loki acting like he owned the place wasn't very surprising. Tony hadn't yet met an Elder that wasn't a touch arrogant.

“This isn't your chair, princess,” Tony told him. “Get your own.”

Loki met Tony's gaze, smiling again. “No, I think I would like to keep this one.”

Tony felt the nudge. It wasn't a big one, just a tiny tug, a suggestion more than an order. Loki was testing the waters.

Tony raised a brow. _Bitch, you thought._ “Get your own,” he repeated, slowly and firmly.

Loki blinked. For a moment, his expression wavered between surprise and confusion, but then it cleared and the smile returned, showing teeth now. “My, you are a complicated one, aren't you?”

He stood up smoothly and offered Tony the chair with a elegant hand wave, looking at Tony intently as he sat down.

“Do you have something for me?” Tony asked. “Because otherwise -”

“Yes,” Loki interrupted. “Here.” He placed a sleek thumb drive on the desk. “This should tell you everything you need to know.”

Tony glanced up at Loki before he took the drive and plucked it in. He quickly looked at the documents, and soon realized that Loki hadn't promised too much. There were lots of files, mostly about a guy named _Thanos -_ the Titan's real name, Tony guessed. One file in particular caught Tony's interest. He gave JARVIS a few commands, and soon the data was displayed in the form of vibrant blue holograms behind them. 

Tony stood up and examined it all, letting out a rush of breath when he realized what it was, exactly. He took a look at the coordinates.

“Where is this, J?”

_“Maine, sir. It's close to the remains of Bar Harbor.”_

Tony let out a whine. “I hate Maine. Always makes me feel like I'm stuck in a Stephen King novel.”

“You know Stephen King?”

Tony blinked and turned to Loki, who he had almost forgotten. He shrugged. “Sure. Old stuff, but not that bad. Kind of funny, actually. Have you read _Salem's Lot?”_

“Yes,” Loki said, watching Tony attentively. “I have.”

“Really? 'Cause you kinda look like Kurt Barlow.”

Loki actually _gaped_ at him. After a moment he said, “I should kill you for that.”

“Yeah, but you won't.” Tony grinned and looked back at the hologram. “Because you want me to get into _this.”_

Loki stayed silent. Maybe he was contemplating whether he really wanted Tony to do anything or if a drink that wasn't scotch would be better, after all. Either way, Tony didn't care right now, because he was busy thinking about how to get into what looked like a goddamn _fortress_ without dying.

Loki had brought him a map. A map of a building, completely under the ground, connected by a very complicated looking system of tunnels. They were a few marks - entrances, guard posts, armories, sleeping areas. A bright red _x_ seemed to mark the spot where Tony could find the Titan.

“Is he always there?” Tony asked. “Or does he go out sometimes to, I don't know, fuck shit up?”

“You have eight weeks,” Loki replied, which didn't explain all too much. 

“What, then he'll be gone?”

“Yes. He frequently changes bases, because he doesn't want other Elders to find him.”

Tony snorted. “That worked out really well, didn't it?”

“Oh, definitely,” Loki said, smiling.

“And how many people do I need to get past?”

“A few dozen, certainly. Vampires, mostly, perhaps some humans.”

Tony took a breath. “Yeah, okay. That'll be fun.”

“Can you do it?”

Tony looked at Loki, who was frowning at him, and grinned. “Honey, I can do everything. Give me two weeks, then you'll be rid of him for good.”

“You are quite full of yourself.”

“I'm the best, and you know it. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.” Tony wiped away the hologram with a wave of his hand and returned to his desk. “So, here's my list.”

Loki took the folded piece of paper from Tony and looked down at it. He read the names, raising a brow. “These are just three names.”

“Great, you can count,” Tony deadpanned. “I want to know everything about these three before I leave. I'll tell you the other two names when the job is done.”

Loki hummed and looked down at the list. “Are you friends with the Black Widow?”

“Are you friends with Thor?”

Loki's eyes snapped up to glare at Tony, and the look in them was warning enough, even though he didn't say anything. Tony held his gaze, which was - easier than it should have been, maybe. He liked looking at Loki a tad too much.

After a long moment, Loki returned his attention to the list again. “Hydra is not the name of a person.”

“Oh, did you just want names of humans?” Tony asked innocently. “Maybe you should have specified that.”

“Yes, maybe I should have,” Loki said, but he didn’t sound annoyed anymore. In fact, Tony was fairly sure that he could see amusement in the Elder's eyes. Loki folded the paper and slid it into the inner pocket of his coat. “This is acceptable. I will send the information your way tomorrow.”

“Sounds good,” Tony said. “I'll be gone by midnight, though.”

Loki accepted that with a nod. “Well, then. Shall I wish you good luck, or would you take that as an insult?”

“From you, I'd take it as a challenge.”

“Ah.” Loki grinned. ( _God,_ he had dimples. He shouldn't have been allowed to have dimples.) “Then good luck, Anthony. Until we meet again.”

And then he disappeared.

Tony stared at the spot where the vampire had been for quite some time, then he asked, “Did he really just make it out of the building?”

_“Yes, sir. At least I cannot detect him anywhere.”_

_“How_ did he do that?”

_“I don't know. It shouldn't be possible, not even for a vampire of his age.”_

Damn right. Making impossibilities possible was usually _Tony's_ thing, and now he wasn't sure whether he should be appalled or impressed.

Somehow, he found himself grinning.

///

Not even twenty-four hours later, Tony was already sitting in the small jet he had built himself, years ago. He let JARVIS do the piloting because he himself was busy working through all the files Loki had sent him. (They had all just appeared on the thumb drive Loki had already given him, because Loki apparently wasn't one to miss a chance to show off when he was given one.)

Loki had been very thorough. Tony had just given him five names, and Loki had responded with goddamn _ammunition._ This was enough to take every single one down for good. Tony just needed to exploit their weaknesses and then make the final hit, and just like that he and the world would be rid of them. Natasha could take care of Dreykov, the guy who had put her into the Red Room; Tony had already sent her everything she needed to hunt him. And with the information Loki had given him about Ultron and would give him about Doom and Vanko, Tony could have them dead within half a year. He could even take Hydra down - or well, maybe he would give Rogers and Barnes the chance to take Hydra down, because they kind of deserved it.

Ah, well. If he died on this trip, JARVIS would know what to do with all the information. The AI could rip the baddies apart just as well as Tony.

_“Sir, maybe you should sleep a bit before we arrive in Maine.”_

With a sigh, Tony looked up from his tablet. His eyes were already burning a bit; he hadn't slept at all since Loki's last visit.

“You know me, J. I’m too -”

He was cut off by the faint sound of what was unmistakably an explosion. The jet didn't even wobble, but Tony still dug his fingers into the armrests of his chair to steady himself.

“JARVIS? What -”

_“Only a fight below us, sir. There is no reason to worry.”_

Tony relaxed again, and then moves to one of the small windows to look down, but naturally he couldn't see anything. They were above the clouds, safe; the jet was even hidden from sight by a special concealment technology Tony had developed. Nothing would happen to them, but they _were_ currently flying to an area that wasn't exactly the safest.

“What's happening down there, J?”

_“I'm not sure about the details. Do you want me to send a drone?”_

Tony shook his head. “Nah, leave it be. Probably just some resisters and vampires busting heads. Nothing we want to get involved in.”

_“I agree.”_

Tony returned to his chair in the cockpit and drew up his legs, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in. He already knew that he wouldn't be able to; he never could when they were crossing through a war zone. He didn't believe that one of his friends were fighting down there, but still - people were losing their lives.

That wasn't anything new, of course. People had been losing their lives in fights like this for half a century now. Tony had been born after the wars had already been raging for years, so he didn't know anything else. To be honest, he even thought that it was humanity's own fault - they hadn't _needed_ to let everything go up in flames, had they? If they had been a tiny bit more careful, more attentive, a tiny bit _kinder,_ then maybe the vampires wouldn't even have had a chance to take over.

But, well. This was how things were now. The Elders were the ones in control, and all other monsters had used their chance. Humans were not much more than prey now.

There were a few who weren't content with that, though. A few were still fighting. _Resisters,_ Tony had said, as if he wasn't one himself. It was a nice little underground organization - _little_ being the right word, because they really weren't many. Someone had come up with a clever acronym, and since then they called themselves _SHIELD._ They were hunters, mostly. People whose families had already known about the existence of all possible sorts of monsters before the wars, or just people who had lost everything and were now willing to give their lives, too, as long as it meant that they could help make the world a little less dark.

Tony refused to call them heroes. He himself certainly wasn't one. But he _was_ one of the best hunters they had, and that had to be worth something, right?

God. If Steve ever heard about Tony making a deal with an Elder (again), he would throw the tantrum of the century. _That_ would be fun.

///

Getting into the Titan's fort was almost too easy. Tony had started his mission right after sunrise, and not even an hour later the human guards had all mysteriously disappeared, and Tony found himself standing in a tunnel system that was full with a few humans and a lot of day-drunk vampires that would kill him at sight.

Day-drunk. That was what they called it; that similar to sleepwalking state young vampires got in when they didn't need to sleep the days away anymore. They were a tiny bit easier to kill because of it, but only when they didn't notice you. When they did notice you, you were dead even faster, because when they felt threatened, day-drunk vampires had _absolutely_ no chill.

So Tony had to do this quietly. It was a bit annoying, because usually his method was to show up and fuck shit up and then leave again, which was quick and effective. This would take _ages,_ though. He wouldn’t have minded that, usually - he _could_ be patient when he had to be -, but he had to do this under the ground, and being under the ground always put him on edge.

At the moment, he was sitting in a hidden nook in one of the tunnels, a now properly dead vampire lying next to him. Tony was catching his breath while JARVIS scanned the area, one dot after the other appearing in front of Tony's eyes. Most of them were red, those were the vampires, but a few were blue - more humans. 

Tony didn't allow himself a very long pause. Soon he was already on his way again, sneaking through the tunnels and avoiding the patrols as well as he could. He had hid the bodies well, so he had some time until they would be discovered.

Still, he should hurry.

His glasses showed him where he had to go, and he went there quickly and quietly. He fired off four more wooden bullets, and each of them found its way from the silenced gun into the heart of a day-drunk vampire. He got closer and closer to his goal, and he thought that so far it had gone very, very well.

Of course that was when everything went to shit. 

First of all he got caught, but that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was that he got caught in the room in which he should have found Thanos, but he didn't get caught by Thanos. Thanos was not there at all, and Tony was starting to think that he wouldn't arrive anytime soon.

As soon as he had sneaked into the room, two vampires had gotten hold of him and, no matter how much he fought, they didn't let go of him again. On the other side of the room, another vampire was just standing up and walking toward Tony, and he was one of the most hideous _thing_ Tony had ever seen.

The vampire's skin was gray-ish white, just like his hair, and he was not so much tall as just oddly _long -_ long legs and long arms and a long face, and long fingers held in front of his body, fingertips touching. Even his lips were long, long and thin, and when they stretched into a cruel smile Tony could see yellow teeth. 

Tony knew who that was. He had seen him in the files Loki had given him, and what he had read about him hadn't been pleasant.

“Tony Stark,” Ebony Maw greeted him, his voice slick and bone-chilling cold. “The _Iron Man._ I have to admit that I expected you to be a little bit… taller.”

“Well, we can't all look like dead praying mantises.”

Maw's smile died like a blown out candle. “You reek, mortal.”

Tony smirked at him. “Disgusting, isn't it? Believe me, I taste as bad as I smell.”

“That remains to be seen. You let us wait.”

“Gosh, really? I'm so sorry. Am I too late for the -”

One of the vampires that were still holding him pushed her knee into Tony's side, nearly making him topple over. He gritted his teeth against the pain and glared up at Ebony Maw, who just waved his hand. The vampires obeyed the unspoken order and let go of Tony just a little reluctantly. Tony immediately took a step away from them and straightened his back, holding the Elder's gaze.

“So you knew I was here the whole time, huh?” He asked. “And you were just waiting here while I killed your minions?”

Maw's smile returned, and it made Tony's skin crawl. _Fight or flight,_ his body told him, but Tony did neither just yet. 

“You have killed children of Thanos,” Ebony Maw told him in a tone like poisoned honey. “For that, you will die. Be grateful for his grace.”

“Uhm,” Tony said. “I don't really get the logic of that, but -”

“Tell me who sent you, and your death will be quick.”

Tony let out a derisive laugh. “Nobody _sent_ me, squidward. I'm just here because I wanted to kick your messiah's ass.”

Maw's eyes narrowed to slits. “Take him away,” he said, almost softly, and at once the vampires grabbed Tony again.

God, he was fucked.

///

Tony had been a prisoner before. Sometimes he let himself be imprisoned willingly, because then he could take apart whole nests of monsters from the inside, but it had happened without his permission a few times, too. There had been that whole Ten Rings thing, since which Tony had… a slight aversion to caves of all sorts.

Tony had gotten a nice little cell, who knew how many feet under the ground. It was dark and wet, and the silence crept under his skin and made it itch. When he sat leaning against the wall and stretched out his legs, his toes touched the opposite wall. 

He spent his time counting his own breaths. It helped him to keep breathing evenly, never minding the panic that threatened to crawl up his throat every now and then. It wasn't a good tool to measure time, though, and since there was not even the slightest bit of daylight in the cell, Tony had no idea how long he'd been sitting in it. Eternities, certainly.

Ebony Maw had come to him two times already. He still wanted to know who had sent Tony, but Tony knew that they wouldn't kill him as long as they wanted something from him, so he kept his mouth shut.

The hunger was starting to get really annoying. They had given him a bottle of water - he was _so_ thankful for their grace - and he had been rationing it well, so the thirst wouldn't kill him anytime soon. But the hunger made it hard to think.

The third time Maw came for him, he made Tony stand up. He asked the same questions - _who_ and _when_ and _how_ and _who_ and _who_ and _who_ \- and Tony gave the same answers, namely either sharp retorts or stoic silence. It didn't take long until Maw had Tony pinned against the wall, he was getting angry now. Tony clenched his teeth and tried to turn his head, desperate to block out the rotten smell and the unwanted proximity and the panic, but the vampire pressed his hand on Tony's throat, making him freeze.

“You _still_ reek,” Maw hissed, his fingers squeezing.

“Funny,” Tony choked out. “I just thought the exact same thing about you.”

The vampire sneered with his thin lips. “If it is true what you said and your blood tastes like it smells, I would rather not try it. Pathetic, isn't it, that it is not even good enough for _that.”_

 _“Fuck you,”_ Tony snapped and tried to push his knee up to free himself, but the vampire's grip seemed to be made of cold metal, too firm to be broken.

“Now, now. Behave. Again: Tell me who it is who sent you, and you will die peacefully.”

Tony didn't reply. Instead he spat right into Maw's face, which sadly didn't seem to impress him very much. The Elder just used his free hand to wipe his face, looking at Tony almost like he was disappointed. Disappointed that the weak human wasn't playing by his rules.

“How about a little pain, then, to remind you of your place?” Maw asked, as if he was offering a precious chance Tony should have been thankful for.

“Not necessary,” Tony spat. “I know my place very -”

The promised pain flared up in his stomach - a knife - and in that moment Tony knew that he was going to die. The realization made it impossible to breathe, and he didn't even hear the vampire's next question. He didn't care about it, anyway, because the only thing that counted was that he was _going to die_ and he _did not want to die_ and the sheer _audacity_ of death, he couldn't just -

Suddenly, Ebony Maw was gone. Tony noticed not much more than the abrupt lack of pressure on his throat, but that was enough for him to start thrashing around, fighting tooth and nail to free himself.

“Stop it, you fool, or you _are_ going to die.”

A different pair of hands pressed Tony against the wall now, one of them covering his mouth. Tony was so shocked by the sight of familiar green eyes that he actually stopped moving, though that might have had something to do with the pain and the exhaustion as well. He tried to shout something against the hand on his mouth, but -

“Be _silent,”_ Loki told him, his tone quiet and sharp, barely recognizable as the silk-smooth voice Tony had heard the other two times they had met. “Did you tell them about me?”

Tony said something that was supposed to be _what the fuck are you doing here,_ but Loki didn't even let him finish. He shook Tony just enough that the pain of it made him groan.

“Did you?”

Tony shook his head, and Loki let out a relieved sigh.

“Good,” he said, calmer now. “Now take a breath, and do not pass out.”

Tony did take a breath, and then the world spun and wavered and shifted around him, and he passed out.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Early update because I'm bored and impatient. I hope y'all are doing fine!❤

The room Tony woke up in looked like a hotel room.

Not like Tony had ever  _ been _ in a clean and in-use hotel room before, but he'd seen them in old movies and TV shows that had been made before the wars. Jarvis had shown them to Tony when he had still been a kid, all those funny shows about funny people that somehow always took place in either offices or pretty apartments. Tony had been too small to understand most of the jokes, and born too late to get any of the pre-war references, but that hadn't kept him from watching them. He'd closed his eyes sometimes, imagining that his parents weren't hunting but in one of those offices, working and bickering, and that he and Jarvis weren't in a safe house on complete lock-down but in one of those pretty apartments.

A hotel room. A bed, warm and soft with moss-green bedding, and pale walls with strange artworks on them. Wooden furniture. Sunlight was falling through the window, filtered by half-closed curtains.

What the  _ actual  _ fuck.

Grunting, Tony tried to chase his drowsiness away and sit up, but something was pulling at his arm and kept him from moving. He tugged at what felt like plastic with his other hand and finally managed to pull it out, which hurt like a bitch, but at least he could move now. What the hell was that, an IV? Tony had never used one before, but he did recognize it. SHIELD still had some medical resources from the times where hospitals for humans had still been a thing, but Tony hadn't been in their headquarters in years.

His head spun when he sat up, which made him feel a little like he was going to puke. He looked warily at the IV bottle for a moment, wondering what was in there. The liquid was clear, but that didn't tell him much. 

Tony decided that it was better not to think about it, so he got out of bed instead. His legs gave in beneath him immediately, so he landed on the floor and needed some time to pull himself together and get back on his feet. It worked better this time, and when he made it to one of the two doors in the room, he at least didn't feel like he was going to black out.

Well, not in the next five minutes, anyway.

Behind the door Tony had reached, there happened to be a bathroom. A nice bathroom, with white and impossibly clean tiles and a big shower, but without even a single personal item in it. There was a toothbrush and some other toiletries, but all of it looked new and unused.

A hotel bedroom  _ and _ a hotel bathroom?

Tony frowned at himself in the mirror, looking at the comfortable clothes that weren't his but fit him perfectly, and at the deep rings under his eyes and the pale skin. He looked sick, but he didn't look  _ dead,  _ and his heart was stoically beating on; Tony could feel it when he pressed his hand on his chest. He didn't find any bite marks either, so that was good.

His hand found its way to his stomach. He looked down and pulled the t-shirt up, revealing an expertly bandaged wound. It was sore to the touch, but all in all it felt more like a week-old wound than like a fresh one. He was in dire need of a shave, but apart from that - well, he was fine. All in all.

How long had he slept? And, more importantly, where the fuck were his things?

Tony dragged himself out of the bathroom and looked around the bedroom again, but he didn't find anything that belonged to him. No guns, no glasses, not even his damned boots. Just clean surfaces and weird looking art that Tony couldn't make sense of.

Tony clenched his teeth and approached the other door, half expecting to find it closed. But no, it opened without protest and let Tony poke his head into what seemed to be a hallway.

It was clean as well and bright - almost  _ too _ bright; the wall opposite of the doors consisted mainly of glass. Tony could see hills in the distance, lots of greens and browns, and they seemed vaguely familiar. This couldn’t be too far away from LA. Tony kept one hand on the wall, steadying himself, while he took a few steps down the corridor. All in all it looked exactly like the pretty houses of rich people Tony had seen in those old movies. Every hope that this might belong to SHIELD disappeared; humans didn't  _ have _ pretty houses like this anymore. The only humans living (and dying) in houses like this were the pets of vampires.

Which. Uh. Not good?

Tony glanced back to the room he had woken up in, but he hadn’t seen anything he could have used as a weapon. Of course there wasn't anything, and he wouldn't find anything in the bathroom, either, except if he wanted to defend himself with a toothbrush.

Ah, well. Fuck it, if this  _ was _ a vampire’s (read: Loki’s) lair, Tony would die anyway, with or without a weapon. 

Tony passed by a few other doors, but he didn’t try to open any of them. He wanted to make as little noise as possible, and while poking around in a vampire’s belongings might have been interesting, getting out of here was much more important than that.

It didn’t take long until he found a spiral staircase. Tony carefully and quietly took the first few steps down and leaned over the glass railing. He could look down on a broad and open living room with elegant but comfortable looking furniture, and an entire facade made of glass. Behind the windows and beneath an almost ridiculously blue sky, there was the sea. Tony felt like he was high above it, though, so the house seemed to be built on a cliff. 

He supported himself on the railing while he made his way down the stairs. He was starting to feel a little dizzy and his stomach was churning, though Tony couldn’t say whether it was because of hunger or just plain nausea. Either way, he ignored it and concentrated on not stumbling over his own feet. 

The stairs led further down, but Tony decided to search for an exit on this floor. He paused for just a second when he spotted the grand piano right next to the staircase, but soon yanked his eyes away from it and turned to his right, away from the windows. He walked quietly into what felt like the most promising direction to him, and indeed it didn’t take long until he reached some sort of entry area, together with a door that led outside. Looking over his shoulder and hurrying his steps, Tony went to open the door, only to find out that t was locked.

“Shit,” he uttered, although he hadn’t really expected anything else.

He turned around again, wondering if he could find another exit without being spotted. That plan got crushed as soon as he came back to the spiral staircase, because now the big room wasn’t empty anymore. 

Someone was sitting in one of the armchairs in front of the curved glass facade, facing the windows. Tony knew who it was before he even actually  _ saw _ him, because Loki just had some sort of  _ presence _ that filled the room and informed everyone that he was there and that he was the one in charge, thank you very much. Dealing with that had been easier when they had been in Tony’s house, but this was Loki’s territory, and Tony felt like a captive and like an intruder at the same time.

“Do you want to keep looking for a way to flee?”

Loki spoke without turning to Tony, his tone silky and warm. Miles away from the sharp edges that had clung to his voice when he had found Tony in the Titan’s fort.

Tony slowly approached the vampire, coming to a halt in a distance to the armchair that was  _ not _ safe, but helped Tony to pretend that he was. The daylight wasn’t bothering Loki in the slightest, apparently. In fact, he was the epitome of nonchalance, sitting there with his legs elegantly crossed, a book on his thigh. He wasn’t wearing a full suit this time, just slacks and a dark green dress shirt. The first two buttons were open, revealing a patch of white skin, the hint of a collar bone.

Tony was too keyed up to deal with that right now. Couldn’t the asshole be gorgeous somewhere else? 

_ “Is _ there a way to flee?”

Loki glanced up at him, clearly amused. His eyes quickly returned to his book, he even turned a page. “Of course not.”

“Then running around here looking for one would be a goddamn waste of my time, wouldn’t it?”

“I’m glad you agree,” Loki said, unbothered by Tony’s sharp tone. “Please, have a seat.”

“I don’t want to have a fucking seat.”

“No? You look like you might pass out soon.” Another page. “I will not carry you anywhere  _ again, _ so maybe you would like to reconsider your decision.”

“I never asked you to carry me anywhere in the first place!” Tony snapped. “If you’re mad because I didn’t fulfill my part of the deal, well, my bad! He  _ wasn’t there. _ I got caught because he wasn’t there, because your information  _ was wrong.” _

“Yes, it was,” Loki agreed. He seemed calm, all in all, but his mouth twitched in a way that didn’t seem very calm at all. “He knew that you were coming.”

“Well, that’s not on me! I didn’t tell anyone.”

“That might be true, but you will stay here until -”

“You can’t just  _ keep me here, _ okay? I -”

“If I wanted to ‘keep you here’,” Loki interrupted, “nothing whatsoever would stop me from doing so, least of all your complaints.” He looked up again, not amused anymore, and closed his book. “As it is, I am not happy with you being here, either, so please stop shouting at me. And do sit down, would you?”

Tony felt the tug now, too. Heard his own mind whisper to him,  _ he wants you to sit down, he thinks you’ll pass out. He’s being  _ kind, _ do what he says and stop shouting, stop - _

Yeah, no.

“Stop ordering me around,” Tony shot back. “That doesn’t work on me.”

“It certainly seems like it doesn’t.” Loki considered Tony for a moment, thinking, then said, “Still, we need to talk, and I would like to do it eye to eye.” Another pause. “Or do you want to eat first? I’m sure you are hungry.”

Tony just stared at him at first, but eventually he shook his head, then finally sat down in one of the other armchairs. He was starting to feel a little numb.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Loki asked. He set his book aside. “How are you feeling?”

“Oh, just great. This is like the picture-perfect holiday I never booked but always wanted.”

Loki smirked. “Really? Well, I’m pleased to hear that.”

“Right.” Tony glared at the vampire. He knew that demanding to leave wouldn’t get him anywhere; Loki didn’t seem like a guy who let anybody demand anything from him when he didn’t get something in return. So Tony tried it differently. “When can I leave?”

“I can’t tell you that, I’m afraid,” Loki replied. “I don't know yet. It will certainly take a few weeks. But maybe we should start at the beginning, yes? Wouldn’t you like to know what exactly happened?”

“Oh, I already know what happened. You fucked up and I almost died, and you took me with you because nobody can know that you hired me. Or that you killed an Elder. Because you - you did kill an Elder, didn't you? Maw?” 

“I did, yes.” Loki looked at him, frowning. “Well. You are correct, all in all.” He wrinkled his nose. “Although I wouldn’t have worded it quite that way.”

“Cut the crap,” Tony said sharply. “Just - just let me go, okay? I won’t tell anyone, we’ll never meet again, I’ll forget that I ever even saw you.”

Loki slightly shook his head. “It’s not that easy. Thanos knows that it was you, and even though he now believes you dead, it would be much better if -”

“Wait, hang on - he believes I’m  _ what?”  _

“Ah, yes.” Loki made a dismissive gesture, as if he hadn't just mentioned something very important. “Well, I left one of the human guards in the room where they kept you and made him look like you. The illusion should fool even the Titan, at least for now.”

Tony couldn’t really believe what was happening. This was the most surreal thing he had ever experienced, and he had once watched a fae try to flirt with a werewolf.

“You faked my death,” Tony said, feeling a little numb.

“In a manner of speaking, yes. It was necessary. Thanos wouldn't have stopped searching for you and eventually he would have found you, and I cannot allow that.”

Right, because his  _ status _ was in danger. Because if his vampire friends had known that Loki had killed an Elder and wanted to kill another one, then they wouldn't have been his friends anymore. Tony knew how the hierarchy worked among Elders; they didn't take kindly to betrayal.

“So you won't let me go, then,” Tony stated flatly.

Loki looked at him, his face blank. “Not until Thanos is dead, no.”

Tony gritted his teeth. “And how long will that take?”

“I am working on it,” Loki said, which wasn't helpful at all. “In the meantime, you will stay here. You can heal in peace.”

“Heal in peace,” Tony echoed. “Yeah, right.”

Loki raised a brow, probably in reaction to the bitterness that was practically dripping off Tony's voice. “Maw would have killed you,” he said calmly, “and he would have made you thank him for it. You are lucky I got there in time.”

“If you'd gotten there  _ sooner,  _ then we wouldn't be in this fucking situation now!”

“I could have let you die there, Stark. It wouldn't have made much of a difference to me. Would you have preferred that?” Loki took his book again and opened it. “Because if so, we could still remedy that.”

“Great. So you're still deciding whether you want to kill me or not?”

“No. I am merely offering the only alternative to this situation, since you are so obviously displeased with it.”

Tony huffed a bitter laugh. “What, did you think I'd thank you for saving my life?”

“Well, it would be the polite thing to do,” Loki said, a little absently because he had started reading again. “But I understand that you are angry, of course. If it makes you feel better, I have no desire to kill you or let anybody else kill you, so this is the safest place you could possibly be at the moment.” He briefly glanced at Tony again, a spark of interest in his green eyes. “Although I have to admit, you smell much better than you did when I found you there. You positively reeked.”

“Yeah, so people kept telling me,” Tony said, which he knew wasn't a proper answer to Loki's unspoken question, but Tony wasn't about to explain all his secrets now. The reeking hadn't been for Loki, anyway; Loki had seen and smelled him before and had to know that the bad smell had been artificial.

And besides, Tony was a little confused about something else. 

“So, why - why  _ didn't  _ you just kill me? It would've been easier for you than this.”

Loki sighed. “I did promise to spare your life. And you still have a job to do, if you remember.”

“You still want me to kill Thanos?” Tony asked, gaping at the vampire.

“Yes, naturally.”

God, Loki being so utterly  _ relaxed _ about this was starting to get on Tony's nerves. He only barely fought the urge to throw something at the guy.

After a long moment of silence, Loki looked at Tony again. “You really should eat something. You will find everything you need in the kitchen, but please try not to set anything on fire. Consider the room you woke up in yours. Get some rest, your body is still healing.”

“You don't say.” Tony carefully put his hand on his stomach; the wound was actually starting to hurt now.

“There is pain medication in your bathroom if you need it. You will heal faster than you are probably used to, but still. I wouldn't recommend any… physical exertions.”

Loki said the last words with a sharp smile that was nothing else but a warning. Tony barely noticed that, though, because he was hung up on something else.

“How long was I out?”

“Four days. I made sure that you stayed nourished while you slept, I know that you humans are rather demanding in that regard.”

_ Four days.  _ What had Tony thought earlier, the wound hurt like a week-old one? 

Well, fuck.

Suddenly, he felt like he needed to vomit. “You gave me some of your blood, didn't you?”

“Only a few drops,” Loki said, amused. “You would have died otherwise. It will have no lasting effects, though, so there's no reason to worry.”

Tony took a breath. Throwing something at Loki wouldn't make anything better. Arguing with Loki wouldn't make anything better. This was a  _ suck it up and deal with it _ situation, and also a  _ do what he says or you might end up dead  _ situation _. _ Tony hated it, but right now he couldn't do anything against it. 

Hell, he could barely  _ stand _ without getting dizzy.

“Where are my things?” Tony asked, forcing himself to stay calm. “Did you leave them there?”

“No, I found them,” Loki said. “They are in your room.”

“Uh, no, they -”

“They  _ are _ in your room.”

Fuck Elders and their magic shtick.

Deciding that he didn't want to spend more time in Loki's presence than absolutely necessary, Tony simply stood up and dragged himself back to the stairs and then to “his room”. His things were indeed waiting for him there, or at least some of them. His coat and boots; the rest of his clothes had probably been too dirty. His weapons were nowhere to be seen, but at least his glasses were on the nightstand.

Tony sat down on the bed and put them on. As soon as he switched them on, JARVIS' voice was in his ear.

_ “Sir?” _

“Yeah, it's me. Hey, buddy. I, uh. We're in a kinda sticky situation this time.”

JARVIS actually sighed.  _ “I wouldn't have guessed.” _

Tony smiled tiredly. At least he wasn't alone.

///

Okay, so living in a house with a vampire was absolutely fucking weird. After two weeks, Tony still felt like he was stuck in some sort of dream - not a bad dream, just a strange one. A dream after which you wake up and ask your subconsciousness how on Earth it had come up with  _ that _ stuff.

It wasn't actually unpleasant, really. There was a warm bed and hot water and more than enough food, and the closet in his room was filled to the brim with clothes that fit him just right. He could use the library when Loki wasn't in it and he could watch movies in a room with the biggest TV Tony had ever seen; Loki didn't seem to use that one himself. Tony rarely heard or saw Loki, and at times he forgot that the vampire was even there. Well, maybe he really wasn't there sometimes, but if he really ever left to hunt, Tony hadn't noticed so far. Loki was creepily quiet when he moved through the house, and sometimes Tony found Loki sitting or standing in places where he certainly hadn't been just a second before. Loki jumpscared Tony now and then, because he was apparently an asshole, but that was about the only encounters they really had. Tony cursed and Loki sniggered, and then they went their separate ways again - Loki to his rooms upstairs or into the basement, where he'd asked Tony not to go, and Tony to his bedroom or the kitchen or the patio outside, where he could go for a swim or just sit there looking at the ocean.

The weirdest thing about it was how uncomplicated it was.

Tony didn't  _ want _ to be here, of course. And he tried to get away, twice, but there simply wasn't a way out. And even if there had been one, Loki could have caught him again easily - or worse, Thanos could have caught him, and Tony wouldn't have survived that. Killing Loki wasn't an option, either, because a) Tony had no idea how, b) it wouldn't have solved the Thanos problem, and c) Tony… well, he didn't really want to.

Correction: maybe that was the weirdest thing about this.

See, Tony couldn't stand vampires. He hated them, really, because that was what every rationally thinking human did in this world. He had lots of personal reasons to hate them, too, so usually he had no qualms about killing them. It shouldn't have been different with Loki. Sure, he seemed like he was a clever asshole instead of a bloodthirsty monster, but that didn't make him any less, you know, dead. And what he was doing with Tony, holding him here like this, was not  _ okay. _ Tony had killed for less.

And still, he couldn't bring himself to hate Loki, and he didn't want to see him dead.

Maybe it was a serious case of Stockholm Syndrome, or Loki was messing with Tony's head somehow, even though that shouldn't have been possible. Or maybe it was just that damned charismatic aura the guy had, which doubtlessly also had something to do with him being an ancient vampire who had lots and lots of experience in wrapping humans around his little finger.

Or maybe it had something to do with the music.

Every night, briefly before sunrise, Loki played the piano. The first time Tony had heard it, he'd thought it was a recording, but then he had picked up odd pauses and irregularities, and remembered the piano downstairs.

There weren’t many working instruments left, at least not in the places Tony frequented. He’d seen a piano like that once, in an underground bar in New Orleans, not long before the vampires had found and raided the place. That was the only time Tony had heard real live music, played on actual instruments.

Every night so far, Tony had woken up when Loki started playing. He stared at the ceiling and listened to the slightly muffled music, how it flowed through the house and seemed to sneak through the slit under the door into Tony's room, catching him off guard. Tony was always disappointed when Loki stopped playing.

He had barely slept this night. Sleeping was getting more difficult now that he'd pretty much recovered from his failed mission, and that meant that he'd spent the whole night doing not much more than doze and wait for Loki to start playing. Sadly, Loki hadn't ever  _ started _ playing tonight, which either meant that he was busy somewhere in the house or -

Well, maybe he was out.

Tony sat up and took on his glasses. “J, scan the house. Where is he?”

_ “I don't detect him anywhere, sir,”  _ JARVIS said, and there really was no red dot to be seen in the whole house.

“Huh,” Tony said. “He probably went out to eat.”

_ “''To drink' would be more appropriate, but yes, I think so.” _

Tony made a face. “Yeah, let's just. Not think about that too much right now.”

_ “Better not.” _

Tony quickly decided to use the chance to go sneaking around. He wanted to take a look at the basement, because he really wanted to know what Loki did in there, but unfortunately he found nothing but another door that wouldn't open for him at the end of the spiral staircase.

Tony glared at it for a while, and briefly contemplated whether searching for tools to pick the lock was a good idea or not. He came to the conclusion that it wasn't, because he wasn't sure if he would survive that encounter with Loki, should the vampire catch him.

The house was still eerily quiet when Tony made his way back upstairs to shower. Just when he stepped out of it again, music started playing downstairs.

Tony paused in drying his hair and listened for a while. Usually, Loki's music was playful and light rather than sad, but this song was downright melancholic. 

Tony quickly got dressed and then left his room. Of course the music got louder the closer he got, and he had to admit that it sounded even nicer listening from here. He made his way down the stairs and stared at Loki, who had glanced up briefly at Tony but apart from that hadn't acknowledged his presence yet.

Loki looked good like this. In the dark, the faint light of the rising sun falling through the glass front of the house and catching in black hair. Pale fingers moving over even paler keys, never once stumbling over a note. 

To Tony's surprise, Loki spoke even before the song came to its end. “Did I wake you?”

“No. I didn't sleep a lot.”

“Oh? Aren't humans supposed to get eight hours of sleep every night?”

“Aren't vampires supposed to be in their coffins by sunrise?”

Loki looked up at the windows, and stopped playing. “Ah. No, I quite enjoy watching it rise.”

“Having a bit of a melancholy session, huh?” Tony said, because he'd never been good at dealing with other people's feelings, and when a goddamn  _ vampire  _ confronted him with goddamn  _ sadness,  _ there was only one thing Tony could do about it: joke. “Maybe it's the midlife crisis?”

Loki didn't reply, but the brief look he gave Tony told him that joking maybe hadn't been the best idea. 

Tony hesitated. He didn’t really know what to say. The sensible thing would have been to just go back upstairs and leave Loki alone, but Tony couldn’t bring himself to move. He could tell that Loki was in an odd mood - the room seemed darker than it should have been, what with the light of the rising sun coming in through the windows, and Tony was sure that it had to do something with Loki being… well, whatever he was being at the moment. A bit of a melancholy session, indeed.

Tony should have just left him to it. He was still pissed at Loki, after all, and a bit of pretty music didn’t change the fact that they were basically enemies.

After a few minutes of silence, Tony realized that he wasn’t going to go back upstairs - because when had Tony Stark ever done the sensible thing? 

He sighed, and after another moment he said, “Don't stop.”

Immediately, Loki turned his head to him completely, blinking in surprise. “Pardon?”

Damn it. Tony shrugged, gesturing at the piano. “You can - I mean, keep playing. It's nice.”

Loki looked at him blankly. “Is it?”

“Uh. Yeah. I haven't - I haven't heard music like this often, you know.”

“Oh,” Loki said. “No, of course you haven't. You were born after the wars.”

“During,” Tony corrected. “Others got Sesame Street and preschool, I got sirens and shooting lessons. Lucky me, right?”

“Lucky you,” Loki agreed. He cleared his throat. It sounded weird coming from him, too… uncertain. Uncertain was something Loki hadn’t been before. “I caught you looking at it a few times.”

At first, Tony didn't know what Loki meant, but then the Elder nodded toward the piano. “Oh. Yeah, I guess. It's pretty.”

“Would you like to learn to play?”

Tony wasn't sure if he had heard that correctly. “Would I like to what?”

“To learn to play, Stark. Are you deaf?”

“Uh, no, I'm not.”

“Well, that's a good precondition. Come here, then.”

Tony didn't move. He just stared at Loki, speechless, and eventually the vampire raised a brow, one corner of his mouth curling into a smirk.

“My, you are not scared, are you? You really don't have to, I just drank.”

“I didn't need to know that,” Tony said.

“My most sincere apologies.”

“Do you even know what that means? 'Cause  _ sincere _ sounds different.”

“Could you handle me being  _ sincere,  _ I wonder?”

Oh, okay. So they were back to flirting now. Right. That wasn't disturbing at all.

“You'd be surprised by how much I can handle, Count von Count,” Tony said, and then he went and sat down on the stool next to the vampire who could kill him with a thought, because Tony Stark didn’t just step down from a challenge.

Even when it might have been better for his health.

So. This was even more surreal than the fae and werewolf thing. Loki was - well, he was surprisingly patient, first of all. Not that he didn't roll his eyes and told Tony that he was making a fool of himself every two minutes, but he also smirked when Tony bristled and then just showed him where to put his fingers again.

Loki excused himself about two hours after sunrise. He disappeared into the basement, and Tony guessed that he wouldn't see him the rest of the day. He himself stayed where he was for a while, absently playing around on the piano and wincing every time he messed up a note.

///

The next morning, Loki didn't play. Tony was awake by sunrise and went down to the kitchen not soon after to eat breakfast. Honestly, it was quite nice that the fridge was always full; Tony wasn't used to that. There were still supermarkets in the cities, but hunters couldn't go there without risking their lives. Tony happened to be high up on the most wanted list, so he usually stayed clear of places where he could run into lots of vampires and other monsters looking for him. There were some human bounty hunters, too, and while Tony sometimes enjoyed busting heads with them - most of them were idiots and just a lot of fun to tease -, he only wanted to meet them when he planned to. So he usually got his food on the black market or hunted it himself, and so far he'd gotten through well enough.

Loki however had fresh things delivered every few days, and Tony ate so much that he'd already gained a bit of weight. He shouldn't get used to it, he knew, but he could enjoy it while it lasted, right? The shitty situation was made at least a little bit better by the fantastic food.

“You are getting better at this.”

Tony flinched, and naturally Loki laughed at him. Tony turned to glare at the vampire, pointing at him with the spatula. “ _ You _ need a bell.”

“Now that would ruin the fun, wouldn't it?” Loki walked past Tony and proceeded to put the kettle on, because that was a completely normal vampire thing to do. Obviously.

“Do you really drink tea?” Tony asked, staring while Loki riffled through a box full of tea bags.

"No, I merely make it to look at it," Loki said absently. 

_ “Why.” _

Loki looked Tony dead in the eye. “I like watching it steam.”

Tony rolled his eyes and turned back to the stove. The pancake was a tiny bit too brown, but it was probably still edible. “Ha ha. I mean it, though, why are you -”

“Because I like tea,” Loki interrupted, finally making a choice and closing the box. “Really, is it that difficult to understand?”

“Uh.” Tony turned off the stove and tossed the spatula aside. “You know what, yes. Yes, it  _ is _ that difficult to understand, because I've never heard of a tea drinking vampire before.”

“Well, there is a first time for everything.”

Tony watched as Loki poured water into his cup and carried it to the kitchen table. He sat down, folding his hands around the cup, and looked at Tony, who leaned against the kitchen counter and looked right back at him.

“Is there something else on your mind?” Loki drawled after a moment, playing around with the tea bag. 

“Yeah,” Tony said. “Better at what?”

“I'm sorry?”

“You said I was getting better at something.”

“Ah.” Loki glanced at the stove. “At cooking. In the beginning, the whole house smelled like burned food every time you cooked.”

Tony crossed his arms. “Your stove is weird.”

“Oh, yes.” Loki nodded wisely. “That must be the reason.”

“Yep, it is.”

Loki smirked, but he let Tony have the last word. It was silent for a while. Loki sipped his tea while Tony switched between drinking his coffee and pulling off bits of the pancakes he'd made to eat them where he was standing. Tony watched the vampire, aware that he was being watched in return, Loki looked a bit tired, but that wasn’t unusual. It had more to do with how pale he was than with actual tiredness, Tony supposed. Not that Loki looked  _ bad _ \- hell, he wouldn’t have been capable of looking bad even if he’d tried. And his paleness actually suited him, together with his emerald eyes and pitch-black hair it made him look a little like he was made of porcelain. It was a nice contrast to the power he radiated so casually, and both said power and Loki’s looks were far more fascinating than they should have been.

Tony couldn’t stop looking at Loki’s hands. His pale, long fingers were wrapped around the cup, as if seeking its warmth. His skin was doubtlessly colder than a human’s. It was sad that Loki always covered it up from head to toe, with slacks and long-sleeved shirts. Today the first buttons of his shirts were open again, though; his black hair stood out sharply against the white skin of his collar bone.

Tony’s fingers itched with the need to touch, which was  _ not _ okay. He swallowed and made himself look down at his coffee instead,

It was kind of weird, all of this. Tony guessed that Loki wanted to talk about something, because otherwise he wouldn't have been here at all. Loki had never joined Tony in the kitchen - or anywhere else in the house - before, and the only times they had talked that hadn't involved jumpscares had been because Tony had started a conversation about their Thanos Problem. He'd never had the impression that Loki particularly wanted to be talked to, because the only answer Tony had gotten so far had been a rather annoyed  _ I am working on it, Stark. _

“Were you out tonight, too?” Tony asked, clutching his third cup of coffee. He needed to break the silence, otherwise his thoughts might just wander off into dangerous directions again.

“No,” Loki replied. The better part of his attention was on his tea rather than on Tony.

“You didn't play,” Tony said, carefully, prepared to run into a wall of blank looks and  _ why are you even talking to me? _

Tony didn’t know why he was talking to Loki. Or why he had come down the night before to hear Loki play from up close, or why he had sat down next to Loki so that he could learn to play the piano. See, Tony didn't often meet people who were interesting to talk to. In fact, he didn't often meet people, full stop. And judging by the times they had talked before the mission, Loki actually  _ could _ be interesting to talk to, so was it weird that Tony kind of  _ wanted _ to talk to him? Yeah, probably. 

Ah, well.  _ Wanted  _ was probably a too strong word.  _ Wasn't averse _ might be a bit more fitting.

Anyway.

“I was busy,” Loki replied flatly. He didn’t look away, and his eyes were  _ still _ too green, inhumanly green; there was a touch of surprise in them. “Were you waiting for me to start playing?”

A bit more than surprise, maybe. Curiosity? Could be that Tony was just imagining things.

He shrugged, deciding not to answer that. Instead, he said, “Busy, huh? Are you finally making some progress? Because I don’t want to stay here forever, you know.”

“Yes, I know,” Loki said, only a little annoyed. “It is… taking me longer than I expected. Thanos knows now that he is being hunted by someone who could actually reach him, so he is very careful now. I haven’t found him yet.”

Tony had no idea how Loki was even  _ looking _ for him when he rarely ever left the house, but okay. He probably had his methods. 

“And now?” Tony asked. “What’s the plan?”

“The plan is none of your business, Stark. You have no role in it yet.”

“Then give me one,” Tony said. “Let me look for him, maybe I can -”

“No,” Loki cut him off, the look in his eyes sharp. “You would just end up getting caught, and then you would end up telling them about me.”

“Why?” Tony laughed briefly; he was starting to get a bit angry. “Do you think I can’t handle a bit of torture? I don’t betray my partners.”

“We are not partners, though.”

“No, right now, we  _ are. _ We don’t have to like it, but it’s true. Business partners. You can’t expect me to just laze around here while you do all the work.” Tony took the last bit of his pancake and waved with it before stuffing it into his mouth. “See, I’m already getting fat.”

Loki smirked, and maybe Tony was imagining things again, but he was reasonably sure that Loki looked him up and down for just a second before he said, “Well, I can’t say that it doesn’t suit you. You smell much healthier.”

“Stop commenting on my fucking smell.”

“Forgive me, I meant it as a compliment.”

“It’s gross, don’t do it,” Tony told him, but judging by the way Loki smiled into his cup, he knew very well that Tony was just complaining for the sake of it. “So tell me, what  _ is _ the plan?”

Loki sighed as he set his cup down again, looking at Tony as if he was being a nuisance. Well, maybe Tony  _ was _ being a nuisance; he was quite good at that. “I need to speak to an acquaintance. Maybe he will be able to tell me how Thanos learned of our plan, and he should have a way to find him. I will just need to convince him that it is necessary.”

Tony raised his brows. “Another Elder?”

Loki nodded. “Yes, and a rather traditional one at that.”

“Oh, great. So how likely is it that he’ll want to cut off your head? Or my head? Is my head in danger? Because I don’t want to lose it, I’m really fond of it.”

“No, Stark,” Loki said, mildly exasperated. “He will not harm you, and he will not harm me, either. He will come here in a few nights, just to talk.”

“Okay,” Tony said, drawing the word out. “And then?”

“We’ll see.”

Well, at least it was  _ we _ now. Tony sighed and looked back at the stove. He still had some batter left. “Do you eat pancakes, too? Or just tea?”

Loki thought about it for a moment, warily eyeing the bowl with the batter. “I would not say no if you offered.”

God, this guy was weird.

///

Tony woke up to the sound of the piano. He grinned even while he was still half asleep, and he was out of bed and taking his glasses before he even realized that he was moving. He didn’t bother changing out of his sleeping clothes when he left his room to go downstairs, where Loki was indeed sitting at the piano.

Tony didn’t hesitate this time; he immediately walked over to Loki to stand next to him, watching his fingers move swiftly over the keys. Loki looked up at him and, without stopping to play, moved to the side a little so that Tony could sit down next to him.

“Do you ever not wear your glasses?” Loki asked, his voice quiet, almost soft.

“Not if I can help it,” Tony replied.

“Their color is ridiculous.”

“Don’t insult my glasses.”

“They hide your eyes,” Loki said, which - the way he said it, it almost sounded like a compliment. In a weird way.

Tony fought the urge to take off his glasses just so Loki could see his eyes. “Stop ordering me around,” he said, again. “I told you it doesn’t work on me.”

Loki quirked a brow. “I am not trying to ‘order you around’ at the moment.”

“Then dial down your charm a notch, it’s getting weird,” Tony said, but Loki just grinned, showing white teeth.

“I’m afraid I am unable to do that,” he said. “You will just have to learn to deal with it.”

“I’d deal with it alright if you let me.”

Loki actually laughed. The sound was tinted with surprise, which somehow made it even nicer to listen to. “You have no shame, do you?”

“Nah. Shame is boring.”

“I wholeheartedly agree,” Loki said, almost purring. After a moment he added, “I’m surprised my ‘charm’ is working on you at all, however.”

“It’s not.”

“Oh, but you just said -”

“If it was working on me, I wouldn’t be aware of it,” Tony cut in. “And I am, so it’s not.”

“I see. And why not, pray tell?”

“That’s none of your business, Mozart.”

Loki looked down at the piano keys as his song slowly changed into another. “Has it something to do with the device in your chest?”

Tony glared at him, but he did not put his hand on his chest like he wanted to. Loki had probably seen the mark when he had taken care of Tony’s wound in the beginning; Tony had already known that. But still, he didn’t like talking about this, least of all to a vampire. Thankfully, Loki didn’t ask any more questions, he just smiled and continued playing, clearly amused.

Tony looked at the piano as well, listening. The song Loki was playing now sounded a tiny bit threatening, downright creepy. Tony found he rather liked it. “What’s that song?”

“You don’t know it?”

“I wouldn’t ask if I did, genius.”

“It is called  _ Iron Man,” _ Loki said. “By a band that is long forgotten, I should think. They released it in 1971.”

Tony snorted. “God, that’s ancient. It sounds cool, though. I should make it my title song.”

“Ah, I would advise against that. It’s not a particularly happy song.”

“Yeah, doesn’t sound like it.” Tony shrugged, grinning at Loki. “Still. I like it.”

Loki slightly shook his head, but he didn’t say anything. He was smiling too, though, just a little, and didn’t stop playing until the song was over. Then he started showing Tony the chords, even though they were much too difficult for him, and he didn’t stop smiling for quite some time.

Tony had never slept with a vampire before, and he knew that he shouldn’t want to. But still, watching Loki’s fingers on the keys made him wonder what it could be like.

Shit. That could become a problem.

///

Two whole weeks passed before the other Elder made an appearance - so much for “in a few nights” - and they developed some sort of routine. Loki gave Tony piano lessons in the mornings and never commented on how weird it was that Loki gave Tony piano lessons, and then they moved to the kitchen, where Tony made breakfast that Loki sometimes ate, sometimes just regarded with a raised brow or even a wrinkled nose. (The vampire was, unsurprisingly, a picky eater.) 

After breakfast, Loki usually disappeared into the basement for a few hours. Tony had no idea what he did down there. Loki didn't seem to mind sunlight that much, but maybe he still had some sort of darkened spot down there where he slept the days away. In the late afternoon, he often came back upstairs to see what Tony was doing, even though he mostly just gave Tony one or few looks before retreating to his rooms upstairs - except when Tony happened to be in the pool outside, then Loki even left the house to, wonder of wonders,  _ start a conversation. _

And to watch.

Tony was aware that he was being ogled, of course. Not because Loki didn't try to be subtle - he did, he just wasn't very good at it. Which was surprising, really, because Loki was even better at hiding what was going on in his head than Natasha, and that was saying something. But whenever Tony caught him looking, Loki's eyes immediately flew up to meet Tony's before he looked away entirely, a tinge of annoyance scurrying over his face before he remembered to put his mask back into place.

Tony tried every time to convince Loki to jump into the pool as well - fair was fair, after all. If Loki got to see Tony in trunks, Tony wanted to get an eyeful, too. Sadly, Loki didn't agree with him there.

They agreed on a lot of other things, though. They were… well, on the same wavelength, so to speak, and that was also surprising. Two people couldn't have been more different, after all, what with them being natural enemies and stuff. And still they spent hours and hours talking about stuff from before the wars, about the movies Jarvis had shown him and the books he'd read, but also about things Tony had never heard of before. Loki was a good storyteller, with a voice that had been just  _ made _ to be listened to, and Tony had nothing better to do, so he listened.

Maybe he also liked having someone to talk to. Just a bit.

He hadn't thought that you could just  _ talk _ to a vampire like this. He'd never done that before. And he still didn't  _ want _ to, not really - now and then he was reminded of what Loki was. A too sharp smile, green eyes flaring up, the mention of something that had happened hundreds of years ago; all of that was enough to make Tony feel a pang of aversion. Loki always noticed, and within seconds his entire demeanour just cooled down, and then they avoided each other for a bit. 

That never lasted long, though. Soon enough they would run into each other again and start talking, and then the big and cold house seemed a little less big, a little less cold. 

Loki's charm was a dangerous thing, and he was clever and sassy and just  _ fun  _ in a way nobody else had been before. He was a vampire, yes, but he wasn't a bloodthirsty  _ animal.  _ If he had wanted to take a sip of Tony's blood, he would have done so already; it wasn't like there was anything Tony could have done to stop him. The thing was, Loki seemed to like talking to Tony just as much as Tony liked talking to him. Sure, Tony knew that they shouldn't be talking to each other at all, but - what else was he supposed to do? Sit in his room for weeks and pretend that Loki wasn't the most interesting person Tony had ever talked to? No.

Tony had never been able to stay away from interesting things.

///

The Elder that stood in the living room was probably half giant. That was Tony’s first thought, and right after it came,  _ shit, you don’t want to make that one angry. _

He was taller than Loki, albeit only by one or two inches, and had so many muscles that he could probably snap Tony in a half with just two fingers if he'd wanted to. He had eyes that were just as blue as Loki’s were green - intensely and inhumanly so. All in all, he looked like a viking, and Tony did not want to get any closer to him than absolutely necessary. He had an idea who the guy was, though.

To his surprise, Loki had come knocking on Tony’s bedroom door to tell him that his  _ acquaintance _ would be here soon. Tony had taken that as the implied invitation to join the conversation it had doubtlessly been meant to be and followed Loki downstairs, where they had waited for mere minutes before this giant vampire had all but hammered on the door. Loki had rolled his eyes and gone to let him in, and Tony stood facing two vampires that were both more than a little intimidating in their respective ways.

If power had been a liquid, they would have left wet footprints everywhere they went.

“Thor, this is Tony Stark,” Loki introduced him tersely. “Maybe you have heard of him.”

The other vampire -  _ Thor - _ looked at Tony just for a moment before turning to Loki again. “Since when do you accept consorts, brother?”

Wait, what?

“He is not my consort, Thor,” Loki replied with a sigh. “He is -”

“I’m his business partner,” Tony jumped in. “Hi, nice to meet you.” To Loki, he said, “Did you really call your  _ brother _ an  _ acquaintance?” _

Loki rolled his eyes, but apart from that he ignored Tony as he led the way to the sitting area in front of the windows. Tony followed them a little more slowly; he really didn’t want to get too close to Thor. He had looked at Tony like all vampires, especially Elders, looked humans - like he wasn’t even really there, like he didn’t matter beyond the fact that there was drinkable blood running through his veins.

Only now Tony realized that Loki never looked at him like that.

“I thought you wanted to be a part of the plan.”

Tony looked at Loki, who was sitting on the sofa, and swallowed when Loki nodded at the empty place next to him. Tony frowned, but after a moment he went and sat down in the armchair that was the furthest away from Thor. The blond vampire looked at him a little oddly, but when Tony steadily held his gaze, the blue eyes concentrated on Loki again.

“You said you need my assistance?”

Loki screwed up his nose. “I did not say that. If I needed anybody’s assistance, it certainly would not be yours. Where is Heimdall?”

“Heimdall?” Thor echoed. “I’m not sure. In Europe, I think.”

Loki didn’t seem pleased to hear that. “ _ Europe. _ What is he doing there?”

“I don’t know.” Thor looked at Loki for a moment, thoughtful. “What do you need from him?”

“Information, of course. I have some business to settle with Thanos, but he is hiding.  _ Again.” _

Thor’s confused expression cleared into something rather exasperated. “Loki, please tell me you had nothing to do with that hunter who -”

He stopped himself. 

Loki raised a brow at him, and slowly Thor yanked his eyes away from his brother to look at Tony. Tony didn’t know what to do, so he just looked right back at the Elder. After a few seconds, Thor’s shoulders actually slumped.

“I should have known,” he said, letting out the sigh of the world-weary.

“Yes,” Loki agreed. “You should have.”

“I know that we and Thanos have had our disagreements,” Thor said, “but you promised to let me deal with him.”

“Well, you didn’t do anything, so I decided to do it for you,” Loki told him, downright flippant now. “Because he does need to be dealt with, Thor. Otherwise -”

“I know, I know.” Thor frowned. “Killing him is against the law.”

“You  _ make _ the law.”

“Yes. Right.”

“Thor.”

“I will try to find Heimdall and see what he knows,” Thor said, nodding. “And then I will join you and -”

“No, you will not. I only need you to talk to Heimdall, because we both know that he will not tell me anything, and you will not be involved in this beyond that. Is that clear?”

Thor narrowed his eyes, but eventually he nodded. “Fine. Tell me what you need to know, then.”

Loki did, and not soon after Thor disappeared again. That left Tony and Loki sitting in front of the high windows in a silence that was just the tiniest bit uncomfortable.

“You are unusually quiet,” Loki said eventually.

Tony just shrugged, still tense. It didn't happen often anymore that vampires kicked off his fight or flight instincts like this; Ebony Maw had been the last to do that. He still had to fight the urge to get up and hide in the false safety of his room. 

“Are you impressed by him?”

Tony turned his head to look at Loki, whose face was, as so often, absolutely blank.

“No,” Tony said.  _ Impressed _ wasn't the right word. He was impressed by Loki; Thor just creeped him out. “I'm just trying to make sense of things. Why did you say that he makes the rules?”

“Because he does.”

“Right, and let me guess - he does everything you tell him.”

Loki shrugged with one shoulder, smirking. “His answer would be a vehement 'no'.”

“So yours is a 'yes',” Tony concluded.

“Is that a problem?” Loki's tone was light, almost curious.

Was that a  _ problem?  _ Oh, no. Of course not. Tony had just stumbled into the top of the vampire hierarchy, which meant that he'd been spending time with the guy who were one of the reasons why humanity was as fucked as it was and, even better, Tony had actually kind of begun to  _ enjoy _ the time they spent together. None of that was a problem, right?

Right.

///

“You overslept.”

Tony didn't look up. “Did I?”

He was making dinner and had some trouble understanding what the recipe wanted him to do. Loki had an entire cabinet full of cooking books - some of them were ancient, handwritten things -, so Tony always chose one at random and made whatever recipe was on the page he first laid his eyes on when he opened the book. He needed to improvise most of the time because he didn't always have all the ingredients, but so far he hadn't poisoned himself by accident. Not yet, at least.

“Yes,” Loki said. “Twice in a row, in fact.”

Finally, Tony looked over his shoulder at Loki. The vampire was already sitting at the kitchen table, having appeared there out of thin air and watching Tony with narrowed eyes. They hadn't talked much since Thor's visit two days ago, simply because Tony had stayed in his bedroom practically the whole time and only left it to get something to eat, just like he had now.

Tony held Loki's gaze for a moment, then turned back to the stove. “Yeah, well. Won't be able to sleep in forever, so I've got to enjoy it while I can.”

He sounded tetchy. He knew that he sounded tetchy and he didn't want to sound tetchy, but he couldn't help it. He  _ was  _ tetchy.

The silence that followed felt heavy. Tony could positively hear Loki's mood drop even lower; it was as if it made a dull, echoless sound that Tony could sense in his bones. That was another weird thing about Loki - his mood always changed the entire atmosphere in the room, and the slightest changes of his temper could make the walls seem like they were closing in, trapping Tony inside. Oddly enough, Tony was never scared when that happened. He recognized anger and bloodlust when he saw them, and this wasn't them.

He also recognized sadness.

“So he did impress you, after all,” Loki said in the end, his voice dangerously quiet.

“This isn't about Thor,” Tony replied without looking at Loki. “Actually, this - this isn't a  _ this _ at all. Okay? This is a nothing. Just go back to your lair and leave me alone, there's no reason to sit here and talk.”

“My lair,” Loki echoed. “I see.”

“Don't sound like that.”

“Like what, pray tell?”

_ Like your unbeating heart is breaking,  _ Tony thought, surprising himself, but he couldn't possibly say that. “Like you're about to have a melodramatic breakdown.”

Okay, fine. That hadn't been much better.

“Oh, don't worry. I will have nothing of that sort.” Loki sounded lighter again, just a bit, but Tony doubted that it was sincere. “I just find myself a little surprised. I didn't believe you would start to get scared, after all.”

Tony couldn't keep himself from huffing a bitter laugh. “I'm not  _ scared.  _ I've met way creepier guys than you.”

And it was true, really. Loki might have been creepy in the sense of the word that he was just so old that he was way too fucking powerful and also a touch  _ ethereal _ , which had made Tony's very human instincts be very suspicious in the beginning, but he wasn't  _ creepy _ in the way other monsters had been.Or in the way Thor had been. Loki had never even tried to bite Tony, for one thing. Or lick him. Some creatures had actually tried to lick him in the past, so everything that didn't was an improvement.

Still.

“I'm just,” Tony continued, “you know. I mean, I don't know if you noticed, but my heart's beating.”

“Yes,” Loki said. “I did notice that. I can hear it.”

Fine, that was a little bit creepy. For some weird reason, though, Tony wasn't annoyed by it. He sighed. “I  _ am  _ a human. You're not.”

Loki wasn't impressed. “Such acute observations. You are on quite a roll this evening, aren't you?”

Tony clenched his teeth and looked at Loki again. “You and your brother,” he said. “You're the leaders, right? The big string pullers behind everything. And don't - don't bullshit me, Thor's the muscle and the face, but you're the brain.”

“So to say,” Loki said evenly.

“Well, that makes you the guy I've been wanting to kill since I was eight years old.”

Loki simply looked at him, his expression unreadable.

Tony's mouth twitched and he shrugged, then averted his eyes again. He halfheartedly shoved his dinner around in the pan. He wasn't hungry anymore.

“I won't try,” he said after a long moment. “To kill you, I mean. I'm not stupid, I know I don't stand a chance. And I'll finish this job, too, because I want Thanos dead as much as every other human I know. So we're business partners for now, but that - that's all. And it'll be over when he's dead.”

“So no more piano lessons, I take it.”

Tony pressed his lips together. “I've got no talent for it, anyway.”

Somehow, Loki's silence sounded like disagreement. 

  
  



	3. Chapter 3

Tony's weapons didn't look or feel any different, which was good. Loki had promised that he hadn't done anything with them except store them away in his mysterious basement, but then again Loki could have lied very easily and also convincingly.

Still, Tony didn't feel like Loki was lying.

He put on the holster for his two guns. He was already wearing his boots and had brought his coat and gloves from upstairs, so all and all he was ready for the show to start.

Loki watched as Tony got ready. His expression was one of polite disinterest, but Tony didn't miss the way the vampire's eyes followed his every movement. They lingered on Tony's thigh as he strapped the sheath for his knives around it, and when Tony was done with that, Loki needed a second too long to yank his gaze away from whatever part of Tony's body he'd been ogling. Eventually their eyes did meet, though, and Tony made sure to keep his face just as blank as Loki's was.

It would have been easy to tease Loki a bit more. A raised brow, a smirk, some clever words that were just a tiny bit suggestive. Tony would have done just that before Thor's visit, but now - well, they had agreed, or rather Tony himself had made clear that they were business partners, nothing else, and that they would be enemies again as soon as their business was finished.

“You are certainly well prepared,” Loki said, his voice quiet and smooth. 

“Eh, I still need one or two things from my house.”

“I can bring you there.”

Tony nodded, although a little reluctantly. Just last night Loki had gotten word from Thor; that Heimdall guy really had known where Thanos was at the moment. The information had come along with another map of another fort, and it had taken the whole day until Tony and Loki had come up with a plan. It wasn’t all too different from the first plan, mostly because Tony’s plans usually consisted of “go in there and eliminate every threat as quickly as possible”. He never bothered to plot all details, he just did that when the details showed up and demanded to be dealt with. Improvisation was the key, and also the fact that he could rely on his own reflexes. Loki, however, was a perfectionist, and apparently he liked thinking about every detail and how it could be of use to him. It was fascinating to see how that mind worked - just as quick and clever as Tony’s, only with slightly different priorities. 

They had gotten into a discussion about various tactics in various situations, which had been the only reason the planning had taken them a bit. It had been fun, though, and in the end they hadn’t disagreed on a lot of things. The only real problem was that they still didn’t know how exactly Thanos had learned about Tony the first time he’d gone after him - they both swore that they hadn’t told anyone else about the plan, and apart from that Loki had also been a bit insulted when Tony had asked him if someone could have snooped on Loki somehow. Tony himself couldn’t be sure; he’d taken all the possible precautions to avoid being tracked down or followed, but well. Loki had found him, too. 

It didn’t really matter in the end, anyway. Loki insisted on bringing Tony close to Thanos’ whereabouts himself this time, because apparently he could make sure that nobody at all would notice them. How exactly he was going to achieve that remained a mystery, because according to him, “a mage does not reveal their tricks, Stark.”

He was just being extra mysterious on purpose because he knew that it annoyed the hell out of Tony. Because he was an asshole. 

He’d been smirking again. Teasing Tony, obviously, even though he seemed a bit… hesitant, almost. And the teasing hadn’t lasted long before Loki’s expression had hardened again. It was hard right now, too, and the look in his eyes was a little odd. Tony didn’t want to call it bitter or, even worse,  _ yearning. _ It wasn’t quite anger either, though. Tony had no idea what it was, but he didn’t like it.

Not for the first time, he wanted to tell Loki that his, for lack of a better word,  _ rejection _ hadn’t been a personal thing. Hell, Loki’s personality had the least to do with it, because let’s be honest here, if he’d been human, they would have been best friends. They probably would have landed in bed weeks ago, too. Because Tony, against all odds and better knowledge, really  _ liked _ Loki, and a rather big part of him didn’t want him to think that Tony didn’t.

The thing was, Loki wasn’t stupid or blind, and he probably knew all of that. It just didn’t make anything better.

///

Teleporting sucked. 

There, Tony had said it. Sure, it seemed cool as hell, but when you actually  _ did _ it - god. Not pleasant.

“Are you done?” Loki drawled, getting impatient.

“Give me a break,” Tony gasped from where he was leaning against the wall a few steps away from Loki. “You could’ve  _ warned _ me, for fuck’s sake.”

“That wouldn’t have been any fun.”

“Is  _ this _ fun?” Tony snapped, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve. His stomach was still revolting; it hadn’t adjusted to the very sudden change of locations yet.

“Yes,” Loki said cheerfully. “I think it is.”

Tony glared at him and finally straightened again. He swayed a little as he made his way past Loki, and the vampire actually reached out to grab Tony’s arm and steady him. Tony let him, but not without looking at Loki in surprise. A mixture of pain and annoyance scurried over Loki’s face and he squeezed Tony’s arm briefly before he let go again, waving his hand into the direction of the entrance to Tony’s house.

“Go. I’ll wait for you here.”

Tony needed a second to understand what had happened. The nausea was gone and his head was clear; he didn’t feel like he had whiplash anymore. 

So, that was a bit weird.

He narrowed his eyes at Loki. “What did you do?”

“I said go, Stark.”

Tony sighed and turned to open the door to his house. He closed it behind himself and went to get the few things he needed. He had JARVIS do a quick scan, but it seemed like Loki had done nothing but made Tony’s nausea disappear. Another magic trick he wouldn’t explain, probably.

As soon as Tony left his house again to join Loki, the vampire wrinkled his nose in distaste.

“You stink,” he informed Tony, the look in his eyes sharp.

“Yes, I know,” Tony said. His arm still itched a bit from when he’d injected himself with the serum a few minutes ago. Banner had developed it back at SHIELD, and Tony always used it before going on a vampire killing spree. “Sorry if it offends your royal nose. It’s the only way I can make sure vampires keep their teeth away from me.”

That didn’t do much to soothe Loki. He even took a step away from Tony and looked away. His expression was like something that had been carved into stone, cold and unyielding, and Tony couldn’t help but feel like Loki had somehow taken the whole serum thing as a personal insult.

“So,” Tony said after a too long moment of silence. “I’m ready, you know. We can go.”

Loki didn’t say anything.

“I mean, I know this is a very pretty neighbourhood and the night is black and beautiful, but I kind of have a job to do. So if you want to stand around here for a bit longer, maybe you could -”

The world shattered and disappeared around him, only to snap back into place a second later. It looked different now, though - they were standing at the edge of a snowy forest between the trees, looking up at what seemed to be the Titan’s new residence. This time, the teleportation didn’t bother Tony at all; probably Loki’s mojo was still working. 

Tony immediately let his glasses scan the area and found that it was, unsurprisingly, positively contaminated with vampires. Two of them were even standing not all too far away from them, leaning against the stone wall of the fort. They were probably on patrol, at least in theory. It would be easy for Tony to get rid of them. 

“I’ll take care of the one on the left,” Loki said, and Tony turned to stare at him.

“Wait, you -”

But Loki had already vanished, and a second later Tony saw him reappear a few steps away from the left vampire. Tony cursed and drew his gun, aiming at the vampire on the right. His shot was silent and flawless, hitting the undead woman right in the heart. He took a few steps forward and wanted to shoot the other vampire, too, to get rid of him before Loki could even reach him, but it was too late. The vampire had already noticed Loki, who now stood directly in front of him as if nothing at all was amiss. The younger vampire snarled at Loki and lifted his gun, but Loki - well.

Loki smiled.

“Come, now. That’s not necessary. Give me that, please.”

It was as if he had frozen time. The vampire on patrol kept his gun raised, but he didn’t use it. He just stared at Loki with a look of utter bafflement on his face, and honestly, Tony could relate to that. 

After a moment, Loki held out his hand. Another second ticked by, and then the other vampire handed Loki his gun.

“Thank you,” Loki said kindly. “Do you have other weapons?”

The vampire nodded and gave Loki a knife. Loki made the gun vanish with a quick wave of his hand -  _ how - _ and took the knife, inspecting it for a moment before he looked up again. “Anything else?”

The younger vampire shook his head, and Loki seemed to believe him.

“Don’t move,” he told him, then looked over to where Tony was standing. “Are you coming now or not?”

Tony felt like he was dreaming. He was rarely this pissed in dreams, though. He still made his way over to Loki, warily looking at the other vampire, who seemed quite literally frozen in place. Then, Tony hit Loki’s chest with his own gun.

“What  _ the fuck _ are you doing?” 

Loki raised a brow. “What does it look like?”

Tony stared at him. “Wait. Are you. Do you actually want to, what,  _ come along  _ while I -”

“Do you wish to keep all the fun to yourself?” Loki frowned. “That's rather rude.”

“Oh, is it? Is it really? You know what’s rude? We talked about this the  _ entire day _ and you somehow failed to mention that you want to  _ come with me!” _

“I’m sorry, “ the young vampire said. “But -”

“Shh,” Loki cut him off, and the guy's mouth snapped shut. Directed at Tony, Loki asked, “Did I really not mention that?”

“No! You didn't!”

“Ah, well. I am mentioning it now.”

“You're not coming with me.”

Loki's green eyes darkened. “Do not tell me what to do and not to do, Stark.”

“Then stop doing things that piss me off!” Tony shot back. “You literally gave me this job so that a hunter would do it, so why won't you  _ let  _ me do it?!”

“The last time you tried to kill the Titan, you nearly died. Or have you already forgotten about that?”

Tony was ready to snarl something at him, but somehow the words refused to pass his lips. Because of course he hadn't forgotten that he had nearly died, and it looked like Loki hadn't forgotten it, either. And that was odd, wasn't it? It shouldn't have mattered to him, and it certainly shouldn't have been his answer to the question why he was doing anything at all. Unless -

Unless it really  _ was  _ the answer. 

But that was ridiculous, right? Loki wasn't doing this because he didn't want Tony to nearly die a second time, right? He wasn't here to protect Tony.

Right?

Loki didn't meet Tony's eyes, not properly. Tony still didn't say anything. The only thing he could do was gape at Loki and wonder how the hell this had happened. It just wasn't  _ fair. _

Tony could count the people who had ever even tried to protect him on one hand. It didn't happen often, he didn't let it happen often. Usually, he protected other people. That was what he did, what he was good at, and he was especially good at arranging it so that nobody noticed that he protected them. He didn't need anybody to notice that. Most humans that weren't hunters weren't fond of hunters, because hunters meant trouble. And Tony meant even more trouble than any other hunter, because  _ Iron Man _ was a name that had already reached the Elders. Tony was the safest when nobody noticed him, and everybody else was the safest when they didn't feel the need to protect him.

And now  _ this -  _ this threw him off his feet. This reshaped the entire world. Because Loki was a vampire himself, was the enemy, and he shouldn't have wanted to keep Tony safe at all. Especially not after Tony had made clear that this would never work. It didn't make _ sense. _

And yet, here they were.

“You don't,” Tony tried, but had to start again, “You don't have to do this. I don’t - I don’t need anybody to hold my hand, okay? I’ve been doing this for ages.”

Loki nodded, watching him closely. “I know, Stark. You made it very clear that holding hands with me is not something you desire.” He sighed. “I’m not here because I think you are not capable to do this on your own. I am here because it will make it much easier.”

“But you - if they see you -”

“They won't,” Loki said. 

Gritting his teeth, Tony looked away. “Why don't you just do it on your own, then?”

“Would you like me to bring you back to your house?”

It was a sincere offer. Loki really  _ meant _ it, Tony could tell. He looked back at Loki and found him watching him, his familiar unreadable mask in place.

Tony still didn't know what to say. He didn’t even know what to think _ - _ a part of him was angry, because he didn't  _ need _ Loki to protect him and certainly didn't want Loki to think so. He also didn't want to be… manipulated by this in any way, although he felt like that wasn't the point of this. Hell, Loki hadn’t even admitted that he was here to keep Tony safe, was actually trying to downplay this whole thing, so there was no way he  _ wanted _ to manipulate Tony in any way, and he hadn’t actually ordered him around so far, either. Judging by the way Loki looked right now, he would have preferred it if Tony hadn’t connected the dots. Maybe he was really just here to have a bit of fun himself, and to make sure that Tony didn’t get hurt in the process. Quietly. Without Tony noticing or commenting on it.

Because Loki probably wasn’t used to this, either.

Tony couldn’t deal with this right now. He should have shaken his head and told Loki to stay away, he shouldn’t have been as  _ stunned _ as he was. This had no right to make him feel so - uncertain. Tony Stark didn’t feel uncertain. Then again, he didn’t often find himself confronted with  _ feelings _ like this.

Tony half wished that he was imagining things, or that this was really a means of manipulation right now. Maybe Loki would turn against him as soon as they entered the Titan’s fort.

At least that would be a quick release.

Next to them, the vampire who was technically not on their side begin shuffling his feet. Loki only reluctantly looked away from Tony.

“Yes?”

“The new patrol will be here soon,” the vampire told Loki eagerly. “Do you want me to -”

“No,” Loki said with a sigh. “I don't want you to do anything.”

“Oh.” He actually looked disappointed.

Tony frowned at the vampire. He was kind of thankful for the distraction, but now he realized that this was really quite weird. “What did you do to him?”

“Oh, nothing much. He merely experienced a redirection of his loyalty.”

“Ah,” Tony said. That was totally normal and not disturbing at all. “Well, we can't have him fawning over you the whole time we're in there.”

Loki stared at Tony for a moment, but then he simply nodded and turned to his new friend. 

Tony had not really expected him to ram the vampire's own knife into his heart, but well. 

“Uh,” he said, looking down at the corpse. “That's one problem less, I guess.”

“Exactly,” Loki agreed. Another quick gesture of his hand and both vampires were gone. He looked at Tony again, grinning. “Shall we begin?”

Tony took a breath. He couldn't allow himself to think about all the fifty reasons why he was in trouble right now, because right now he needed to concentrate. He would just. Go in there and kill a lot of vampires with another vampire who might or might not care for Tony more than he should have, and that was all totally fine. A perfectly normal Thursday.

“Yep,” Tony said. “Let's go.”

///

Nobody knew that they were coming, this time. Nobody was prepared, and nobody had even the slightest chance to win against them. Tony already knew that they would win five minutes after they had entered the fort. Loki had left an image in the place of the guards they had gotten rid of, an illusion that looked and moved and, hell, even  _ talked _ exactly like the real ones had. The bodies had just disappeared when he had waved his hand. As long as they stayed quiet, Thanos wouldn’t even know that something was wrong until it was too late.

From outside, this place gave the impression of an ancient building that was just one fierce storm away from being a ruin, but inside it looked every inch like the stronghold of a vampiric mafia boss it was. Fine, it was a little cold and wet, but some of the guards carried weapons that made even Tony go a little pale, and his glasses detected many pieces of technology and materials that he was just dying to get his hands on.

“They have adamantium,” he whined quietly. “Oh god, I want that.”

“Pardon?”

“Nothing,” Tony said, turning to Loki. “There are three behind that door, and two are coming our way from there.”

“I know.” Loki looked at him oddly. “How do you know, I wonder?”

“I’m full of surprises, aren’t I? You ready?”

“Of course,” Loki said primly. A dagger appeared in his hand, glistening in the dim light, and he balanced it on his fingertips for no real reason other than that he was a show-off. “Are you?”

Tony just grinned. They were leaning against the wall in a dark and narrow side corridor, and the two vampires coming their way didn’t saw them coming. They did complain a bit about a weird smell, but they didn't know that it was Tony's fault and didn't expect there to be a human waiting for them. Tony always enjoyed catching people by surprise; the looks on their faces were glorious.

He fired his gun at the exact same moment as Loki threw his knife, and then they both rushed forward to keep the corpses from making any unwanted sounds when they fell. Well, at least Tony rushed forward, for Loki it was more a matter of appearing where he wanted to be exactly when he wanted to be there.

“You are quite deadly, aren't you?” Loki asked, somewhere between curious and nonchalant.

Tony shrugged. His aim was perfect and his bullets were highly effective; of  _ course _ he was deadly. “And you're quite eager to kill people of your own kind, but who am I to judge?”

Loki wrinkled his nose in a way that was very familiar by now, and like all times before it made Tony want to roll his eyes and tease a bit, and hide the twitch in his chest that all but screamed how  _ charming _ the damned nose wrinkling was. The most ridiculous thing in the world; one of Tony's favorite things to watch.

“I have nothing whatsoever in common with these people,” Loki informed him.

“Uh, you do drink blood too, don't you?”

Loki didn't deem that worthy of an answer. He made the corpses vanish with a quick and clever wave of his hand, and Tony remembered that this was  _ not _ the time to be distracted by any noses, no matter what they were doing or how charming it was.

“Alright,” he said, gesturing at the door. “You knock, I shoot.”

“Fine,” Loki said lightly and sauntered over to the door. 

He put one hand behind his back and raised his other one to knock with his knuckles. There was some shuffling on the other side, and Tony hurried to take his place next to Loki. It took a few seconds, but eventually the door opened.

“Good evening,” Loki said, and his smirk alone stunned all three vampires in the room into a silence that lasted long enough that Tony could shoot all of them.

“You know,” Tony said when he lowered his gun. “No offense, but that trick of yours  _ is _ a bit creepy.”

“Is it? I hadn’t noticed.”

Tony snorted and stepped over the three bodies into the room to look around. There were some weapons, some resources, but nothing Tony really needed. That adamantium he'd seen earlier, though… Getting his hands on that sounded like a really good idea. He just needed to remember to pick it up when they were done here.

“I should cover up your smell,” Loki said, pulling Tony out of his pondering.

“Huh?”

“Your smell,” Loki repeated. He was still standing in the doorway, hands behind his back. “They may not realize that it belongs to a human, but they do notice it.”

Tony blinked at him. “And you can - what, hide it from them?”

“Yes.” Loki inclined his head, watching Tony. “It's a simple spell.”

“Okay,” Tony said, because he was used to weird things, and the possibility of any spell being  _ simple _ did not shock him. It wasn't like magic was just about the most complicated field of science or anything. “Yeah, fine. Go ahead.”

“Oh, I already did it.”

Tony looked at him for a moment, then rolled his eyes. “Yes, right, you weren't asking for permission. Because why would you.”

“Why would I,” Loki agreed. “Now, are you done here or are you still deciding whether or not you want to keep any of this clutter?”

“I'm done,” Tony said and walked past Loki into corridor. He tapped his glasses and took a look at their surroundings, then quickly decided where to go. “That way.”

Loki's eyes were fixed on Tony's glasses now, flashing with curiosity. “After you, then.”

They made their way to the fort like that, quiet and and quick and precise. Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly?) they worked well together. They were - or could become, in time - a good team, and often enough they managed to communicate without any words, only with glances and quick gestures.  _ I’ll take care of that one, let’s go that way, do you know what’s behind that door? _

It was easy, all in all. Tony fired his shots or used his own knives and laid his usual traps, which Loki regarded with so much smug appreciation in his eyes that Tony couldn’t allow himself to think about it too much, because then he would just get distracted again. While Tony was busy with his traps, Loki stood watch, and when he was done, they hid in shadows and waited and watched, and more than once Tony heard Loki laugh quietly when one of their enemies ran into a trap that either had them paralyzed or dead on the spot. It was clear that he enjoyed this, in some probably sick and twisted way, but hey, who was Tony to judge? 

He enjoyed this, too.

He’d forgotten what it was like to… have a partner. He had been working on his own for years now, after all, and nobody had stood watch for him in a very long time. It wasn’t all too bad, really, especially because Loki himself was a goddamn asset, even though… well, he  _ was _ a bit weird. Because on the rare occasion that they were noticed before either of them could kill, Loki simply smirked at their opponents and said a handful of words to them, and just like that they became quiet and docile, eager to please. 

And yes, that was weird. Weird and eerie and the most fascinating thing Tony had ever seen. Oh, he was glad that Loki didn't have that sort of power over him, but he still… he still liked to  _ watch.  _ Loki was a silent menace, absolutely deadly, and at the same time he acted with a nonchalance that made Tony grin.

It reminded him of himself, a little. Steve had told him many times that he needed to concentrate on missions, that he shouldn't ridicule their job by making jokes or tease their opponents. It was one of the reasons Tony was working on his own now; he just hadn't fit into that team. 

And here Loki was, throwing quips in Tony's direction every few minutes, his eyes bright and his smiles sharp. He was concentrated, yes, and he did take this seriously, but he was also - he was  _ fun.  _ It made everything easier.

Loki also had Tony's back, watched out for him so subtly that Tony barely noticed it at first. But when Loki eliminated another vampire before they could even come remotely close to Tony or summoned one of Tony's knives back into his hand after he had thrown it, it slowly became obvious. 

It annoyed him, but not as much as it should have. Ignoring it would have been the best thing to do, but when he wanted to reload his gun and already found it fully loaded, he couldn’t keep his mouth shut anymore.

“What did you do, huh? Pull my bullets out of those bodies again?”

Loki, who was wiping his dagger clean on a dead vampire’s jacket, looked at Tony innocently. “I’m sorry?”

“Oh, come off it,” Tony said and held up his gun. “I’m not stupid, Loki.”

“I know that.”

“I also don’t need your magical help to get through this.”

“I know that as well. Still, my point stands - it makes it a lot easier.”

Tony couldn’t really argue against that, because they both knew that Loki was right, so Tony just sighed and let his gun sink again. Discussing this further probably wouldn't get them anywhere, but Tony still had trouble letting it go. Shit like this had been exactly why he wasn't part of SHIELD anymore - he liked it when people needed him, but he hated it when people thought that  _ he _ needed  _ them.  _ When they thought that he wasn't able to get by on his own. Steve had driven him insane with all his motherhenning, and all his attempts to get Tony to “take better care of himself” had only led to Tony distancing himself from the team. Steve had never understood him, had never even  _ tried _ to understand him, because obviously Steve’s own strategies and coping mechanisms were the only acceptable ones.

Tony had been glad to be rid of that. And now, Loki doing what he was doing - whatever it was that he was doing; Tony didn't even know what to call it. But he knew for sure that it made some alarm bells start ringing in his hand.

“Fine,” Tony said, not looking at Loki. He scanned the corridor they were standing in with his glasses. “There are three in that direction. They've got pretty big guns.”

“How droll,” Loki said. He was watching Tony a little warily. “I'll take away their toys, then.”

“Okay, I'll stay here and set the trap for the next patrol.”

Loki nodded and, not without a last slightly wary glance at Tony, disappeared. Immediately, Tony turned around and stomped away into the opposite direction as quietly as one could even stomp.

“This is why I hate vampires,” he told JARVIS in a whisper. “Actually, this is why I hate people. They make everything so -”

_ “Complicated?”  _ the AI suggested.

“Yes. Yes, complicated. It’s annoying and I do not like it.”

_ "He just cares, sir." _

It made Tony still, just briefly. He thought about how his first reaction hadn't been anger at all, but… yes, he'd been touched, almost, when he'd figured out that Loki wanted to come along.

“Yes,” he said. “I know. That's the fucking problem.”

Before JARVIS could say anything else, Tony cocked his two guns and used one of them to knock on the door he had reached. When nobody came to let him in, he opened it himself.

Five vampires were looking at him now, and this time Loki wasn't there to reel them in. Tony grinned as a spike of adrenaline rushed through his spine, his body realizing that  _ yep, we're in danger  _ while his mind went  _ fucking finally. _

He shot the two vampires who were closest to him, and then the others were already throwing themselves at him, their faces twisted into grimaces that didn't look even remotely human anymore. Tony fired another bullet, his other hand already exchanging the gun for one of his longer knives, and kicked the vampire who was getting uncomfortably close in the chest, which thankfully sent him stumbling back a few steps. He buried his knife in the other vampire’s chest - he was young and it went in smoothly, right through already dead flesh and past unused lungs into an unbeating heart. Je was clawing at Tony’s clothes as his body shut down, and Tony grit his teeth when the vampire’s sharp nails teared his shirt and left cuts in his skin.

It hurt, but the smell of his blood was an advantage. The vampire he’d kicked had been about to make a dart for Tony again, but now she froze and snarled in disgust. Tony grinned at the vampire and shot her, but she dodged the bullet, and then Tony’s gun was promptly hustled from him by the third vampire who was still in the room and had apparently recovered from the shot he’d fired at him earlier. He’d all but thrown himself against Tony’s side and now Tony lost his balance, falling over and landing under the vampire, which was the exact opposite of ideal. The vampire was already burying his nails into the still bleeding cuts in Tony’s stomach, but Tony ignored the pain and drove his knife into the vampire’s side until it was buried to the hilt. The vampire growled and was momentarily distracted, long enough for Tony to flip them over and pull the knife out again. He buried it in the vampire’s heart and then jumped up again, spinning around to see the last vampire glaring and growling at him.

She’d been waiting for his friend to kill him, probably. And she still didn’t attack Tony, she just stood there, her stance as hostile as it could even be. Only now Tony realized that he knew her - he recognized the blue hair from the files Loki had sent him. Sadly, he’d forgotten her name. How rude of him.

“I know who you are,” she said, her voice like ice. “And I know what you did. You will pay. I will -”

“Zip it,” Tony cut her off. “Let’s just skip the preliminaries, okay? All these threats are getting old.”

She sneered and then came for him. He held his knife firmly in his hand while he tried to keep her as far away from him as possible, blocking her blows and kicks and landing some of her own. She was faster and stronger, but she had no weapons except her teeth and nails and Tony had much experience in winning fights he shouldn’t be able to win. He’d walk away with a few scratches and bruises, but he did manage to put his knife in her chest, and even though he missed her heart by a few inches she stumbled backwards. He pulled out his gun, but she already threw herself at him again. He landed on the floor beneath her and her teeth were alarmingly close to his face, but his finger was still on the trigger and that was the only thing he needed to lodge a bullet in her heart.

Grunting, Tony shook the lifeless body off and sat up. He brushed his coat aside and pressed his hand to the cuts in his stomach. His fingers came away red, but it wasn’t bleeding too badly and the wounds weren’t deep. He’d survive. 

“You know,” a voice said behind him, “you do not need to prove yourself to me.”

Tony looked over his shoulder, not very surprised to see Loki standing in the doorway. He was surprised to see that Loki was smiling, though.

“If you wanted to impress me, however,” Loki added and trailed off, leaving the  _ you managed _ unsaid. 

Tony stared at him. After a moment, Loki came closer, eyes wandering lazily over the five corpses in the room. They caught on the female vampire Tony had killed just a minute ago.

“Oh, congratulations,” Loki said dryly. “You killed Proxima Midnight.”

“Oh,” Tony said tonelessly. He pulled his knife out of Midnight’s chest and cleaned it before putting it back in its sheath. “Right. That’s her name.”

“It was.” Loki stood in front of Tony now, looking down at him with a frown. “You’re bleeding.”

“It’s nothing.”

“Stop it, please. The smell is ridiculously disgusting.”

“Okay, I’ve no idea what’s it like for you guys, but we humans can’t just  _ decide _ to stop bleeding. So you’ll have to fucking deal.”

Loki rolled his eyes and held out his hand. “Stand up, would you? We should get going.”

Tony gaped at the hand, but after a moment he grabbed it and let Loki help him up. Loki’s hand was cool and its touch firm, and before Tony could stop him, Loki let go of Tony’s hand and pressed his palm on Tony’s stomach instead. He hummed, almost thoughtful, and there was a sudden warmth rushing through Tony’s body, making him flinch.

“What the -”

“Shh, I’m just closing the cuts.”

Tony wanted to argue, but then he felt the pain fade. He stared down at Loki’s hand, stunned.

“Quite deadly indeed,” Loki murmured, keeping his eyes downcast. His voice was even quieter when he added, “And what a sight to see.”

“You - you were watching?”

“Only the last minutes.” 

“Why didn’t you help?”

“And steal your fun? Please.”

Tony stared at him.

Loki took his hand away and looked at his fingers. They were red with Tony’s blood. If the smell of it still bothered him, he didn’t show it; now he just looked - for lack of a better word, fascinated. 

Tony swallowed thickly. His thoughts were stumbling over each other; he didn’t know what to say. “You didn’t - you didn’t have to do that.”

“I know.” Loki yanked his eyes away from his hand and looked at Tony. “I wanted to.”

And here was it again - a moment like those Tony had suffered through so many times in Loki’s house, a moment of closeness that was overwhelming and still not enough, a moment of - damn him, he was  _ hopeless _ \- longing to have things he shouldn’t have wanted to have. The picture was crystal clear. He standing up on his toes, hands on Loki’s lapels, maybe in his hair (god, his hair) and his lips on Loki’s, Loki’s lips on his. Loki’s bloodied hand in Tony’s hair, his tongue cool and his teeth sharp.

Tony couldn’t breathe.

“We should,” he said, not knowing what to say and still knowing exactly what he wanted to say. “Yes. Like you said. Get going.”

“Yes,” Loki agreed.

“Yes.”

Loki nodded, and Tony nodded back. Loki’s fingers shimmered green and Tony’s blood disappeared. Tony looked away and turned around, holding onto his gun as he left the room, Loki close behind him. Next to him. Too close. (Not close enough.)

So. The thing was this: what Loki was doing had nothing to do with what Steve had been doing. Tony knew that now. This wasn't control or patronizing, this was  _ support.  _ Tony had seen it in the way Loki looked at him. There had been relief in Loki's eyes, relief that Tony was alright, but also - approval. He was  _ impressed.  _

And saying that Tony wasn't reveling in it would be a lie.

Tony had trouble concentrating now. Thankfully, they were almost done.

When they reached Thanos, his empire was already nothing more than a cemetary. He just didn’t know it yet. He was young enough that Tony’s bullets actually bothered him, and slow enough that Loki could cut off his head without any problems.

Loki burned the Mad Titan’s head, looking down at it with such  _ hate _ in his eyes that Tony had to keep himself from taking a step back. Loki was a vision - green fire dancing on his palm and in his eyes, casting shadows on his pale skin, lips twisted into a smile that was just as triumphant as it was bitter. He was dangerous and beautiful, and Tony wanted…

He didn’t know what he wanted.

///

The real problems started after they were ready to leave the Titan’s fort. 

They had left him in his lair to rot, and Tony was mainly just glad that the world was rid of him. Checking his glasses a last time, Tony was reminded that there were still a few humans trapped in the basement. That wasn’t unusual; Thanos had needed to keep his army nourished, after all.

He told Loki about them, and Loki quickly decided that he would wait outside rather than come with Tony. Tony would have suggested that himself because really, the poor souls down there didn’t really need to see another Elder after what had most likely been weeks of punishment.

So he went and got them out of their cells, then made sure that they all left this place safely. He had JARVIS send a message to SHIELD; Fury would send a jet to bring the former prisoners into the next inhabited town.

When Tony made his way back to the edge of the forest, where he and Loki had agreed to meet, Loki was nowhere to be seen. Tony just stood there for a moment, confused, until he finally felt a pang of… hurt. Loki wasn’t waiting for him. Of course he wasn’t waiting for him.

That was fine. Really. Tony had just thought that, maybe, they could have at least said  _ goodbye. _

“What’s with the long face, Stark? Shouldn’t you be bragging about saving mankind once again?”

Tony flinched and promptly cursed himself for not being as alert as he should have been. He looked up, one hand hovering over his gun, and found a familiar face looking down at him from high up in one of the trees.

Oh, fuck.

“What are  _ you _ doing here?” Tony called up to his friend. “I thought you were in Mexico.”

The archer grinned. “I was! Then Nat called and said you’d gotten yourself into trouble again, so here we are, saving your ass.”

Oh. Oh, no.

“My ass doesn’t need saving,” Tony said flatly. This was not good. This was very much not good at all. “Where’s Natasha?”

“Not far.” Clint Barton climbed off the tree and soon landed in front of Tony, swift as ever. “She’s got your friend.”

Tony could  _ feel _ himself going pale. Clint said it in the unshakable belief that he was being sarcastic, that that  _ Elder _ wasn’t, couldn’t be Tony’s friend. Tony couldn’t tell him that he was wrong, because he knew that he shouldn’t have wanted the word  _ friend _ to fit as well as it did. He’d told Loki himself that it wasn’t possible, that Tony didn’t want it.

Now he realized very abruptly that that had been a mistake.

“She didn’t kill him, did she?” He asked. He knew exactly what Natasha was capable of, and if she had managed to catch Loki off guard -

Then maybe even Loki could have lost against her.

Clint’s grin faded and got quickly replaced by a slight frown. “No. Not yet.” He looked at Tony for a moment, then asked, “What’s wrong?”

Tony sighed. “I’ll tell you everything, but - just promise you won’t kill me, okay?”

Clint didn’t look particularly happy, but he nodded.

_ Well, then, _ Tony thought.  _ Here goes nothing. _

///

Thankfully, nobody killed him. Clint and Natasha argued with him a lot, though, and Loki spent the whole flight to Natasha’s next outpost glaring at Tony like he was at least thinking about killing him.

Loki sat in a corner of the jet, hands and feet bound by Natasha’s very special shackles. He was also gagged. It seemed like Natasha really had taken him by surprise, and Tony was once more impressed by her. Also a bit scared, but that was just a part of being friends with the Black Widow.

Natasha had been trained in the Red Room. She had been made into an assassin by an Elder who wanted to kill other Elders, and since then she was… well. Not quite human anymore, but also not a vampire by far. Something in between. Tony didn’t know anyone who was as deadly as she was. Oh, Loki was probably just as deadly - Tony didn’t doubt that he could have killed Natasha in an open fight. Open fights weren’t Natasha’s style, though. She struck from the shadows, and all of her weapons were… something else. Her electroshocks looked pretty much like normal electroshocks, but something was off about them.

They had managed to knock Loki unconsciousness, for one thing, and did so again shortly before Clint brought the jet back to the ground. Tony felt a little sick, watching that. Because god, this was all his fault. He’d basically disappeared months ago, and naturally Natasha had found the message he’d left for her. Of  _ course _ she had started looking for him, and of course Loki was now the biggest problem in her eyes.

Tony and Clint carried Loki to his cell, and he stayed there while Tony, Clint and Natasha discussed all the bad life decisions Tony had made recently.

“We should just kill him,” Clint suggested, not for the first time. He was lying on the sofa, his feet resting in Natasha’s lap, and playing with one of his arrows. His fingers were probably already itching to fire the fatal shot.

“ _ No,” _ Tony snapped, also not for the first time. “We won’t. We can’t.”

“Did he do something to you?” Natasha asked. Her tone was even, she wasn’t angry anymore. Maybe just a tiny bit exasperated.

“No, he didn’t,” Tony sighed. He had already told them the whole story, about the deal he’d made with Loki and how everything had gone to shit the first time he tried to fulfill it. “You know that’s not possible, Nat.”

“Then why don’t you want him dead?”

“Because he doesn’t  _ deserve _ to die. He’s -”

“Tony,” Clint cut him off. “He’s an Elder. He’s  _ Loki. _ And fuck, just look at him, he’s ancient! He’s killed more humans than we can even imagine.”

“Do you think I don’t know that? I  _ do. _ It’s just -” Tony took a breath and looked at Natasha, shaking his head. “He’s not  _ evil, _ Nat. I don’t know what he is, exactly, but he’s not evil. He’s not like Thanos.” He gave her a pointed look. “Or Dreykov.”

Natasha watched him intently. “Do you know why he wanted Thanos dead?”

Tony deflated slightly. “No. He said he did some things he shouldn’t have done.” He frowned. “I think Loki’s not one to approve of pointless manslaughter. And that’s basically the only thing Thanos did these last years.”

“Shit, Tony, you’re acting like Loki is some kind of saint. He’s  _ not.” _

Tony glared at Clint. “I know that! But he  _ is _ an Elder, and we all know that Elders can be reasonable. Loki’s weird and a bit creepy, but he’s not - cruel for the sake of it. And he’s not very loyal to other Elders; the fact that he just helped me kill one is proof enough for that.”

Natasha raised a brow. “He gave you the information about Dreykov, didn’t he?”

“Yes. I’ve got stuff about Hydra, too. I’ll send it to Steve and Bucky. And Loki still owes me two names. He can be  _ useful _ to us.”

“He could also kill us. Or betray us. You lived with him for weeks, so he knows more about you than he should.”

“He won’t betray me,” Tony said firmly. “He won’t. He - he promised to spare my life. That was part of the deal.”

“The deal was also that you killed Thanos alone,” Natasha countered. “And he still helped you. I wonder why.”

“He wanted to make sure I wouldn’t fuck up. That’s all.”

“Yes,” Natasha said. “Right.”

Tony’s mouth twitched, but he steadily held her gaze. “I won’t let you kill him. Let me talk to him, and I’ll make sure that he won’t be trouble. He’ll listen to me.”

“Oh my god,” Clint said suddenly, dropping his arrow. “He  _ likes  _ you, doesn’t he?”

“Shut up, birdbrain.”

///

When Tony entered Loki’s cell, the vampire promptly continued glaring at him. And Tony couldn’t blame him, this place wasn’t very comfortable. It wasn’t a cell, really, just a very tiny inner yard that Natasha didn’t consider a part of her house. The walls surrounding the patch of forest ground were high; they had pretty much thrown Loki down here from the ceiling. Sunlight was falling through the hole up there. It was covered up by an electric grid that Loki wasn’t able to pass for reasons Natasha kept to herself. There was a door, but that wasn’t of any use to Loki, either, simply because Natasha hadn’t invited him.

Tony closed the door behind himself. He needed a moment to bring himself to approach Loki, but then he quickly crouched in front of the Elder.

“I’m sorry this took so long,” he said, hoping that he didn’t sound as nervous as he felt. “Please don’t kill me. I swear that I didn’t have anything to do with this, okay? It wasn’t a trap or anything, they just - uh. They’re just a bit overprotective sometimes.”

Wonder of wonders, Loki stopped glaring. He blinked at Tony slowly, confusion in his eyes.

Tony cleared his throat, but didn’t manage to say anything else. He reached out to free Loki of the gag and the shackles. Natasha had given him the keys. Loki didn’t attack him as soon as he was free, which was good. He just rubbed his wrists absently, staring at Tony like he’d never seen him before.

“You are not lying,” he said eventually, speaking very slowly.

“No, I’m not,” Tony said. “This was just a - a misunderstanding. You can go.” He couldn’t look Loki in the eye, so he looked up instead. “Hey, Legolas! Open up!”

For a moment Tony thought that Clint, who was waiting on the ceiling, would refuse. But then the grid open, giving way for Loki to get out of here. Loki, however, made no move to leave.

“Why are you doing this?” He asked instead, still staring at Tony. He was frowning now, and Tony had never seen him this confused before.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Tony said, standing up. He took a step back from Loki. “You bailed me out, I’m bailing you out, so we’re even. Now shoo.”

Loki slowly stood up, but he still didn’t leave. “Your friend could have killed me.”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed hesitantly. “I asked her not to. And she won’t - none of us will hunt you. Okay?”

Natasha and Clint still didn’t know that Loki was, together with his brother, basically the leader of all Elders, and Tony didn’t plan to tell them anytime soon. He could tell by the slight widening of Loki’s eyes that he had understood that, too.

“Why?” Loki asked, sounding absolutely dumbfounded. 

It would have been funny if this whole situation hadn’t hurt Tony so much. He didn’t even know  _ why _ it hurt him, and he couldn’t answer Loki’s question, either. The only thing he could do was shake his head and lift his shoulders, feeling helpless.

Loki averted his eyes. He pressed his lips together, thinking. After a long moment, he looked at Tony again and even took a step toward him, then another, until he was standing directly in front of him. Tony stared up at him and gulped, heart beating so fast that it almost crawled up his throat. Loki looked exhausted and also very, very uncertain, but it was still  _ Loki, _ and the sudden proximity made Tony a bit lightheaded.

“So this is goodbye, then,” Loki said quietly. The confusion was gone, now he just sounded - sad.

Tony swallowed thickly. “Yeah. I think so.”

He should have seen it coming, but he didn’t. When Loki leaned down and kissed him, Tony froze. He didn’t even manage to kiss back, even though he wanted to. Loki’s lips were cold, which wasn’t surprising, and the kiss was gentle, almost tender. That  _ was _ surprising. It didn’t last long, just a handful of seconds, and it stayed as chaste as a kiss could even be, but it was still enough to make Tony feel like the ground had been swept away under his feet. His heart was beating so fiercely now that Loki had to be able to hear it.

Loki straightened again, but he didn’t take a step back. His hand had cupped Tony’s jaw, its touch light and cool. 

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” he said, so quietly that Tony almost didn’t hear him. Loki smiled, just slightly. “Anthony.”

Tony was going to combust. There was no way around it, he was going to die right here and now. That had been the sincerest thing Loki could have said, and  _ no, _ Tony could not handle it. Not when it sounded so much like farewell.

“Likewise,” Tony managed to say, his voice rough, and he meant it. He really,  _ really _ meant it.

Loki nodded, and then he disappeared.

///

A few days later, Tony was back in his safehouse in Los Angeles. He could have chosen any other house he owned, but he hadn’t wanted to. (Loki’s house was in Los Angeles, too.)

He was glad to be back, or at least he knew that he should have been. Here he had his his work to distract himself, he could tinker and create and improve as much as he wished, until he was too tired to think anymore. He didn't go out much except for getting food, but that was fine. After everything that had happened the last months, he thought that he deserved a break.

When he worked, it wasn't difficult to avoid thinking about Loki. When he didn't work, it was difficult to think about literally anything else.

That problem got even worse when, about three weeks after he had last seen Loki, the Elder showed up again. To be fair, he only showed up very briefly and disappeared again before JARVIS could even alert Tony of his presence. The only thing he could tell Tony was that Loki  _ had  _ been there.

And that he had left something in front of Tony's door.

Tony went to open the door at once. He did it slowly and more than a little warily, but then he found that there was nothing waiting for him except a small envelope.

Tony picked it up and took it inside, closing the door behind himself. He sat down on the stairs that led up to his desk and stared at the envelope for a while before he finally forced himself to open it. 

There were two things in it - a tiny thumb drive, and a card with a few words written on it in neat handwriting:

_ I hope you forgive me for choosing the last two names for you. _

_ Good luck. _

Tony blinked and turned the card around, looking for anything else. There actually was something on the other side of it, and Tony stared at the two names Loki had chosen for several minutes.

_ Thor Odinson  _

_ Loki Liesmith _

Well, shit.

  
  
  
  
  
  



	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last third of this chapter turned out a bit more explicit than I planned, so I raised the rating and added a few tags!

Tony stopped his bike in the driveway of Loki's mansion. He absently turned on the carmouflage mechanism so that nobody would even think about stealing his bike while he wasn't anywhere near it, although he doubted that anybody would find it here. He'd needed to get through three gates before Loki's house had even gotten in sight, and Tony had only been able to get this far because he knew the entry codes.

Tony slowly made his way to the entrance, swallowing down the urge to turn around and leave again. He'd allowed himself a few days to think about this, even though his decision had been clear just minutes after looking at Loki's letter. That he needed to talk to Loki had been clear, at least, and also that he was not going to use the information he'd been given. He could use it to ruin Loki, and he was sure that Loki knew that perfectly well. He was alwo sure that Loki wouldn't  _ let _ Tony ruin him, because he couldn’t possibly want him to. The offer was just a means to get Tony to react and come back, so maybe coming here really was the stupidest thing Tony could have done. But Tony still felt the need to  _ tell _ Loki that he kept his promises, that he would not hunt somebody who had, against all odds, become his friend, That the thumb drive in his pocket wasn’t what he wanted.

When he stood in front of the door, Tony wasn't quite sure what to do. He had no idea whether this was the best idea he'd ever had or the biggest mistake he'd ever made. Either way, he was here, and he wouldn't turn back now.

He could see through the glass into the hallway, but the door didn't open when he tried the handle. In the end he just knocked, hoping that Loki would let him in. As creepily good as his nose was, Loki probably already knew that Tony was there, anyway.

It took less than a minute. Loki didn't seem surprised to see Tony when he came into the entry area, but he did stop and hesitate, looking at Tony through the door. Tony had to suck in a breath; he wanted to get closer to Loki so badly that he was tempted to smash the glass and open the door himself. (He'd  _ missed _ Loki these last days, for reasons Tony himself couldn't even start to comprehend.) But he also didn't like to see Loki hesitating. Most of all he didn't like the thought that he'd given Loki reasons to hesitate, this way or another.

Loki did open the door himself, so thankfully Tony didn't need to slam his elbow into the glass. Loki's eyes were fixed on Tony's face, and his shoulders were tense.

“Hi,” Tony greeted him. “How’s it going? Did you miss me? You look a bit gloomy. Anyway, I get that you’re a very busy man, but you  _ could _ have given me that little package personally. Because, you know. I was there. And I already invited you into my house, I think.”

Loki’s tension started to disappear as he sighed. “I forgot how much you talk.”

Yes, right. That voice was still going to be Tony's undoing. He grinned. “Really? Well, we can’t have that. Sing and rejoice, because I’m here to freshen up your memories. Can I come in now or what?”

Loki didn't move. “Are you here to kill me?”

“Nope. Are you going to kill me?”

“That depends, really,” Loki said dryly.

“I'm just gonna take that as the 'no' it really was,” Tony said. “I’m glad we sorted that out. Now step aside, would you?”

Loki sighed, but he did make way and let Tony enter. Tony didn't hesitate, and when he stood in the living room of the house he had basically been trapped in for weeks, he found that he didn't mind being back. 

Though that might have less to do with the house itself than with the person who owned it.

“Why are you here, Stark?”

Tony turned away from the windows only reluctantly; he'd missed the view. “Counter question,” he said and took the flash drive out of his pocket. “Why did you give me this?”

“I still owed you two names.”

“You owed me two names of my choice,” Tony corrected. “And I wouldn't have chosen these. Thor's, maybe. But not yours.”

He tossed the flash drive over to Loki, who caught it reflexively. The vampire looked down on it for a moment and when he met Tony's eyes again, his expression was grim.

“Why not?” he asked. “Why not mine, too?”

Tony shrugged. “I told you, we won't hunt you. I keep my promises.”

“That does not answer my question,” Loki said, his tone almost sharp. “I do not desire half-truths, Stark.”

“Well, suck it up.”

“Anthony. Why not my name, too?”

“Because I'm a selfish asshole,” Tony snapped, “and I don't want you to die.”

Loki just stood there, frozen in place. Tony couldn't keep looking at him, so he huffed and turned away. His gaze caught on the piano that stood exactly where it had always stood. Its lid was closed.

“I am already dead, Stark,” Loki said finally.

“Can't you just  _ decide _ on a name to call me?” Tony asked. “This switching back and forth thing is annoying as hell.”

Loki wasn't impressed, and he didn't say anything. Eventually, Tony took a breath and shrugged.

“You’re undead,” he said. “That’s a difference.”

“Is it now,” Loki said. He held up the thumb drive. “Did you take a look at this?”

“No,” Tony said. He glanced at Loki, then rolled his eyes. “Okay, I took a  _ tiny _ look at it because I needed to know how to get here. But apart from that, no. I don't want it.”

“You could ruin us with this,” Loki said. “You could give it to the Widow. With just a little patience, you could save your people from us. From  _ me.  _ You could -  _ “ _

“I don't,” Tony repeated through clenched teeth, “ _ want it.” _

Loki didn’t reply. The flash drive vanished from his hand as if it had never existed at all, and Tony couldn’t help but be relieved. But what now? Should he give Loki two names of Tony’s own choosing and then leave again? Then he would be given a new envelope in a few days, one without a card, without any words written in black ink. He would never see Loki again, they could both pretend that none of this had ever happened. That was what Tony had wanted after he’d seen Thor - no, scratch that. That was what Tony had thought he had to want.

The world would have stayed exactly the same, and it would have tasted like giving up. Tony had never liked that taste.

“You don’t understand anything, do you?” Loki said, toneless. “Have you not figured out  _ why _ I wanted the Titan dead?”

Tony was a bit thrown by the question. “Well, you never told me.”

“He killed too many humans,” Loki said. “Humanity is dying. Do you know what happens when humanity dies?” Loki’s mouth twitched, he clenched his jaw. “We starve. It all spiraled out of control quicker than I anticipated. Now I keep thinking that it might have been a mistake, taking over.”

Tony had to laugh. He couldn’t stifle it, couldn’t even try to. “Really? That’s it? You  _ regret _ taking over? Didn’t think it would become this bad, huh?” He sobered abruptly, laugh turning into a bitter grin. “And now, what? You want me to kill you and your brother? There are other Elders like Thanos. Do you really think your death would make  _ anything _ better?”

Loki looked at him, and his anger was  _ palpable.  _ The air almost flickered with it. “It would at least give you some leverage.”

“Stop bullshitting me!” Tony hissed, taking a few steps toward Loki. “You’re not really that selfless. You wouldn’t give up control like that. This, the information you tried to give me - it was  _ for me. _ You wanted to lure me in, to - to prove something. I’ve no idea what, but you -”

“You are far too full of yourself.”

“Damn straight I am! You didn’t - you didn’t really  _ think _ that I would use it against you, did you?” Tony didn’t even try to keep the bitterness out of his tone. “You knew I’d come back. You don’t - you don’t need to pretend to  _ care _ to get my attention, you know. You already have it.”

Loki just stood there, his face absolutely blank.

“Come on,” Tony said harshly. “You can’t really have thought that I would kill you, just like that.”

“Why wouldn’t you?” Loki countered. “I didn’t think a little attraction would keep you from doing your job.”

“ _ Fuck _ my job! This isn’t what this is about. You didn’t - this doesn’t make any  _ sense. _ You wouldn’t let me kill you -”

“Ah, yes. Because I am  _ not that selfless,  _ am I? I was just manipulating you to get you back into my  _ lair. _ I wouldn’t sacrifice my power -”

“You wouldn’t!”

“I  _ would,” _ Loki all but snarled. “Not for humanity. For  _ you.” _

Tony thought he hadn’t heard correctly at first. But then he saw Loki deflate, saw him close his eyes for a second and then look away, and Tony thought -  _ oh. _

“I do not want it,” Loki added, much quieter now. “And I don’t know why. But I would.”

Tony’s thoughts were reeling. He couldn’t say anything, he just stood there staring at Loki, who still wasn’t looking at him. After what felt like a small eternity, Loki broke the silence again.

“I understand that you think badly of me,” he said, his tone almost soft. “And I do not - I don’t blame you.”

Tony still felt dumbstruck. “I don’t think badly of you.”

“You do not think me capable of caring,” Loki snapped. “Or of self-sacrifice. You think -”

“I’m sorry!” Tony interrupted. “I’m sorry, okay? I thought - I got it all wrong. I -” 

He trailed off. His brain was still trying to make sense of this, and he wasn’t sure if he understood correctly. He had thought that Loki just wanted to have him  _ back - _ that his letter and the thumb drive were meant to make Tony trust him and come back here. Oh, he’d known that Loki cared, had seen it when they had killed Thanos and  _ felt _ it when they had kissed, but the thumb drive had just been entirely too much. Too much of a gesture, too heavy in its meaning. Tony had thought the worst of Loki, because that had been the easiest thing to think. 

Now he was rather horrified.

“You didn’t really think I would kill you,” he said flatly. “Did you?”

“You are a hunter,” Loki reminded him, as if Tony had forgotten about that. “Killing monsters is what you do. And, besides -” He smiled and it was a tiny, cruel thing, dripping with bitterness just like Tony’s voice. “We barely even know each other.”

And it was true, wasn’t it? They had spent a few weeks in the same house, sure, had talked and bantered and flirted. But Tony knew next to nothing about Loki, and Loki knew next to nothing about him. They had never talked about anything personal, had avoided dangerous topics as if they had been bombs that could have made the entire house go up in flames. What was Tony thinking, that a handful of piano lessons were enough to make Loki forget  _ what _ they were? 

They had certainly been enough to make Tony forget, at least for a while. A good hunter wouldn’t have given that thumb drive back, and Tony had always thought of himself as a good hunter. One of the best, really. He’d never allowed emotion to sneak into his hunts, had never once pitied his prey. 

But this wasn’t pity. It was what he had said,  _ selfishness. _ He didn’t want Loki to die, didn’t want to see him completely and utterly dead. No light behind green eyes; god, the thought alone was enough to make Tony sick. The last thing he wanted was to be responsible for that, not even when Loki’s death would have been what saved all of humanity. 

The thing was, Loki's death wouldn't have saved anything. Sure, it might have made some things easier, but it wouldn't have changed anything about the big picture. Like Loki had said, it had all spiraled out of control. His death wasn't even  _ necessary.  _ But if he'd actually been willing to offer it, then -

Then maybe there were  _ alternatives  _ now.

“That doesn’t matter to me,” Tony said, not looking away from Loki. “And I don’t think it matters to you, either. Or does it?”

“You’re naive,” Loki told him. His voice was sharp at the edges, ready to cut. He was getting defensive again. “And careless. If you think that  _ anything _ but death can come of this -”

“I’m what, an idiot?” Tony cut him off. “Guess what, jackass, you’re not the first to tell me that. Have you ever  _ looked _ at the world you helped create?” Tony let out a laugh that lacked all mirth. “Do you know what it’s like to be a human in this world? We’re not allowed to be optimists anymore. We’re not allowed to have  _ fun _ anymore. Fuck, we’ve got to be grateful for surviving yet another day, and that’s the only goal we have. There’s nothing beyond that - just the next sunrise, the next meal, the next few hours of sleep.” Tony shook his head. “I believed in - so much more than that, when I started hunting. My parents taught me to. I forgot about it, but now that we’re here, I - I think that we could actually  _ improve _ something.”

Loki stayed quiet.

Tony swallowed. “If you - if you want to, that is.”

Sighing, Loki shook his head. “There is no solution that would appease both your people and mine, Anthony. Surely you know that.”

“I mean, we’re really clever. Maybe we can come up with something.”

“And then what?” Loki said, sounding tired. He looked away. “When I left the letter in front of your door, I… I hoped you might think a little better of me. It seems I only made things worse.”

“You didn’t,” Tony said, tone urgent. “Loki, I just - I didn’t like that you would… do something like that. For me. To make me trust you.”

“You thought I was manipulating you.”

“Yes, I -” Tony sighed. “I guess. I’m sorry."

Loki slowly shook his head. "I  _ was _ manipulating you, I suppose. Of course I thought you might come back, but -" He paused, and finally met Tony's eyes again. "Even if it may be hard to believe, I did have your best interest in mind. I thought it would… make things easier for you."

"You're an idiot," Tony informed him, and when Loki narrowed his eyes at him, Tony could just helplessly lift his shoulders. "Seeing you dead would already be bad enough, Loki. Killing you myself would fucking break me."

Loki just looked at him, somewhere between stunned and fond.

Tony cleared his throat. "I  _ am  _ sorry, okay? For thinking the worst of you and - and for what I said earlier. I don’t think you’re incapable of caring, or that you... just don't." Again, he thought about how Loki had looked at him after Tony had freed him from Nat's shackles. "Actually, I  _ know _ you do."

Loki shook his head. “Like I said, I do not blame you. You made it very clear that you do not want to have anything more to do with me, and I shouldn’t have disrespected that. I assume I… I was just being naive, too.”

Tony hesitated. “Hoping that things will get better doesn’t make us naive,” he said then. “That’s what Jarvis always told me, anyway.”

Loki blinked and finally looked at Tony again. “Who?”

“Jarvis. He was my family’s butler." Tony tried to smile, but it ended up a little frail. “Stayed with us when everything went to shit. He took care of me when my parents were away hunting.”

“Ah. I see.” 

“Yeah,” Tony said lamely. He cleared his throat. “Also I - I kind of changed my mind.”

Loki raised a brow.

“I already said.” Tony lifted his shoulders. “It doesn’t matter to me. Maybe we’ll find a solution, probably we won’t. Either way, I -” He looked away, put his hands into his pockets. “I want to see you again. Maybe I could come visit now and then?"

“Yes,” Loki agreed. “Maybe.”

That wasn’t an enthusiastic ‘yes’, but at least it wasn’t quite a ‘no’, either.

///

The next time Tony visited, the door of Loki’s mansion opened as soon as he came close to it. It was a weird and neat trick, but Tony was too nervous to really appreciate it. He slipped into the house on quiet feet, listening to the music that flowed toward him. It was a sad song, and Tony was reminded of the morning they had begun the piano lessons. 

The music stopped, and when Tony reached the piano, Loki had already turned around to look at him. He seemed surprised, although he tried to hide it.

“Hey,” Tony said, stopping a few feet away from the instrument. He didn’t know what to do with his hands, so he hid them in his pockets. “The door, uh. Opened. Is this a bad time?”

Loki slowly shook his head. “I suppose you are here to give me the last two names?”

Tony only barely resisted the urge to sigh. “No. I’m here for a piano lesson, actually. If you’re up for it.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

Loki looked at him for a moment longer, then frowned and turned to the piano. “Why did you come back?”

“You didn’t tell me I couldn’t.”

“Because I thought you wouldn’t.”

“Do you want me to go?”

Silence, for a while, then Loki shook his head. He even made room on the stool, and Tony grinned and sat down next to the vampire. Loki didn’t start playing, though, he just kept frowning at the keys as if they had said something very confusing.

“Loki?” Tony said after a moment, hesitant. He didn’t know what else to say. “What is it?”

“I don’t understand you,” Loki said after a moment, still refusing to look at Tony.

“Yeah, that’s because I’m so mysterious. It’s part of my charm.”

Loki rolled his eyes, which was exactly what Tony had wanted to achieve. His triumph was damped a second later, when Loki looked at him again. “You do not have to be here,” he told Anthony, speaking slowly and firmly.

“I know,” Tony said, drawing the word out. He gave Loki a crooked grin. “I want to, though.”

Loki considered him for a moment longer, and Tony felt like he didn't quite believe him. He didn't know how to  _ make _ Loki believe him, though, so he just waited until Loki cleared his throat.

“Well, then.” He finally placed his fingers on the piano keys again. “Do you know the Beatles?”

///

From there on, Tony returned to Loki’s mansion every few days, always at sunrise. And Loki was always there at the piano, waiting for him, and then they played for a while before relocating to the kitchen for breakfast. It was like nothing much had changed - this was very similar to the routine they had had when Tony had been living in this house, after all -, but Tony was only too aware that  _ everything _ had changed. 

Well, not quite everything. The teasing and the banter were mostly the same. But the deal they had made all the way in the beginning didn’t loom over their heads anymore, and the knowledge that Tony was there because he wanted to made everything a lot easier for both of them. They talked more - Tony hesitantly told Loki more about Jarvis and his parents, bit by bit, and in return Loki spoke about his own life. They still avoided some topics and there was still some hesitance and awkwardness hovering in the air between them, but Tony just hoped that would get better after some time of getting used to the new status quo. 

He wasn't entirely sure what the new status quo  _ was,  _ but anyway.

It was hard to tell what Loki wanted from Tony, exactly. Sometimes Tony thought that Loki didn't want anything from him at all, but then Loki looked at him for a few seconds too long or gave him a smile that was a tiny bit too honestly suggestive. Tony always reacted in the same manner - leant in a little further than strictly necessary, sat close to Loki on the stool in front of the piano, stared at Loki's hands so much that it had to be really fucking obvious. And still nothing  _ happened. _ Tony was uncertain about making the first step, not even knowing why. He wasn't uncertain about things like this, usually. But as it seemed, Loki had managed to turn Tony's world upside down, and now the old rules didn't apply anymore. It was an unsettling feeling, one that always made Tony back off in the very last second, and he always ended up being stunned by his own want. It didn't help that Loki was so goddamn  _ inviting. _

Tony didn't know how often he'd almost kissed Loki by now. Every time Loki brushed past him in the kitchen to make tea, Tony wanted nothing more than lean into him and get the chance to kiss Loki back like he hadn't managed the last time. It was pathetic how quickly Tony's brain shut itself off when Loki got close to him, but he couldn't do anything against it. And he didn't even want to, really.

What he wanted was to get his hands all over Loki. He wanted to find out how that pale skin would feel beneath his fingertips, and if those fingers were as talented as they looked when Loki played the piano.

Yeah, Tony really had a thing for Loki's hands. Sue him.

“You're not listening.”

Tony yanked his eyes away from Loki's hands. “I am!”

Loki smirked. He was looking at Tony, but his fingers didn't once halt or stumble. “No. You're distracted.”

Busted. Tony grinned. “If I am, that's hardly my fault.”

Loki rolled his eyes. “It never is,” he said. Then, “How long do you plan to sit there?”

“What, here?” Tony put on an innocent face. He'd sat down on the piano today, because he knew that it annoyed the hell out of Loki. “A while, I think. The view's pretty nice from up here.”

“I don't doubt that, but this may just be one of the few remaining functional instruments on the continent, and you should not sit on it.”

“Do you want me to sit on something else?”

At that, Loki stopped playing. It was a pity, because the song had been really nice, but since Tony was sure Loki had just stopped to spare himself the abashment that came with messing up a note, it was also a bit of a triumph.

“Perhaps,” Loki said. “Yes.”

His voice had dropped low, and his eyes had gotten dark. It made Tony's self-control snap in a half and before he knew it he was already leaning down as far as he could without falling from the piano, putting one of his feet next to Loki on the stool for leverage and one of his hands _into_ _Loki's hair_ and god, he'd been dreaming of doing _that_ for so long that he nearly missed the fact that he had also pressed his lips on Loki's.

Loki took a sharp breath, lips partening. Funny, since he didn't actually need to breathe. Tony felt an odd sense of smug satisfaction surge up in him, right along with happiness and outright  _ relief _ , and when Loki angled his head upward to return the kiss, Tony was more than ready to melt right off the piano and into Loki's lap.

Sadly, Loki pulled back after just a few seconds. His hand was on Tony's thigh, squeezing just slightly, and his pupils were blown wide when he looked at Tony.

“Stark,” he said, his voice breaking on the last syllable. “You -” He stopped himself.

Tony felt the need to apologize, but he bit his tongue. He stared at Loki, who still looked like his brain was experiencing some technical malfunctions.

“What about me?” Tony asked, his voice just a whisper.

Pain scurried across Loki's face, brief but clear as day. “You do not really want this.”

That was so absurd that Tony had to laugh. “Let me kiss you again and you'll soon see how much I  _ do _ want this.”

“Stark -”

“No,” Tony interrupted. “You don't get to tell me what I want and don't want, Lokes. I told you, don't order me around.”

“I am  _ trying _ not to,” Loki said, almost desperately. He let go off Tony's thigh. “I already said, I can't turn it off.”

Tony sighed. Even though he really wanted to stop talking and finish what they had started a minute ago, he slid off the piano and sat down next to Loki. “Turn what off?”

“My -  _ charm.”  _ Loki avoided Tony's gaze. “That's what you called it, I think.”

Ah. Tony understood what Loki was talking about and shook his head. “Loki, I am here because I want to be here. I told you that, and I wasn't lying.”

Loki shook his head slightly. “People often lie to me. Most of the time they are not even aware of it.”

Oh. Yes, Tony got that. He’d seen what Loki could do to people, after all - how just a smile and a few words were enough to make even vampires hang on his every word, awaiting his orders. Eager to please him. Many older vampires had similar abilities; it made hunting humans a lot easier. But Tony had to admit that he had never seen a vampire who was as good at it as Loki was. Loki wasn't just able to make people swoon, he could reverse the entire polarity of their mind,  _ redirect their loyalty.  _ And even when he wasn't actively doing that, charisma still dripped off of him, and Tony knew that unprotected humans didn't stand a chance against it. Of course, Loki himself knew that their reaction wasn’t  _ real,  _ that it was nothing more than a very convincing lie.

“I’m not lying,” Tony said quietly. “Promise. I  _ like  _ you, Loki.”

Loki let out a brief and quiet laugh. It didn't sound particularly joyful. “You can never be sure of that.” He turned his head and looked at Tony again, frustration in his eyes. “I see how you look at me. You have been looking at me like that since the first time we met.”

“It's called attraction, dumbass,” Tony told him. “You said that yourself. Do you think I can't tell that apart from goddamn mind control? I  _ know _ the effect you have, I can feel it, but it  _ doesn't work on me.  _ It never once made me do anything I didn't want, and it never will. You know that.”

“Do I?”

“Uhm, yes? Aren't you always complaining about how I never do anything you say?” Tony gestured at the piano. “Hell, I just sat on that for twenty minutes, even though I know how much you hate it when I do.”

Loki still didn't seem convinced. With another sigh Tony reached down to grab the hem of his shirt and started to pull it up. He was only stopped by Loki's hand on his wrist, it's grip strong and cool.

“Stark,” Loki said, his tone a warning. “You don't -”

“Relax, your highness, I'm not making a move on you. I just want to show you something.”

Loki frowned, but he let go of Tony's wrist. He had to know what Tony was talking about; he'd seen and mentioned it before. 

Tony took off his shirt and left it on the piano keys, then reached for Loki's hand and guided it to his chest. It was the first time anybody touched the circular device that was buried in Tony's skin, and it made Tony more than a little anxious, but he ignored it and concentrated on Loki.

“You feel that?”

Loki glanced at Tony's face, then his eyes fixated on Tony's chest. “Yes. I know that there is magic in this.”

“Let's call it science, okay?” Tony took a breath and freed Loki's hand. “It's a - I call it  _ arc reactor.  _ There's palladium in it, and silver… Its energy blocks out other energies - like yours, for example. A friend helped me with it.” Tony made a face. “Well, he  _ was _ a bit of a witch, but still. Science.”

Loki was still touching Tony's chest. He traced the edges of the reactor with his fingertip, nearly making Tony shiver. “I know that this works,” he said softly. “That you are not… affected like others. But I still have trouble believing…”

He trailed off, but Tony understood. And it was fair, really, because Tony liking and wanting Loki as much as he did sure  _ was _ surprising and… a little out of the norm, maybe. But Tony had never been  _ in _ the norm and he'd never wanted to be, and even though this was especially bold, even for him, he was starting to make his peace with it. Because his first thought now was that Loki  _ deserved _ to believe that he was really wanted, just like he deserved to be really liked.

“Do you want to try it on me?” Tony offered. “Your tricks, I mean. Try to make me - I don't know, be creative. Just don't be disappointed when it doesn't work. Because it won't.”

“No,” Loki said at once, shaking his head.

“Why not? It wouldn't -”

“I don't even want to  _ try.” _

“Okay,” Tony hurried to say. “That's - okay.”

He couldn't keep from smiling. It was… odd, how much Loki cared. Tony had always known that vampires, at least when they were older, weren't just emotionless corpses. Their personalities generally remained when they were turned, even though they were much less noticeable in the first years, and Tony had met more than enough vampires who  _ had _ been similar to humans in the way they thought and felt. But Loki always acted so distant, so cold, and then in moments like these his eyes nearly brimmed over with emotion. Tony had never dealt well with being confronted with other people’s feelings; it would take some time getting used to this.

“I apologize,” Loki said. “Doubting you is not very… polite.”

“It’s fine. Also, since when do you care about politeness?”

“I have  _ manners.  _ You would do well to acquire some.”

“Nah. You like it when I'm rude. Now show me the end of the song, my fingers can't wait to absolutely ruin it.”

Loki smirked, and very slowly the tension bled out of his shoulders. He made no move to continue their lesson, though, instead he just looked at Tony for a while before he said, “I think I would rather kiss you again.”

Tony blinked. He was surprised, because honestly he’d thought that the moment for kissing had come and gone, sort of. “Uh. Yes? I mean, yes. Sure. If you -”

Loki’s lips shut him up. As far as being silenced went, this was a very nice method, at least so Tony thought. The kiss wasn't half as stormy as the earlier one had been, probably because Loki was the one initiating it. Instead it was soft, careful, and only got firmer when Tony recovered from his surprise and kissed back, one hand on the back of Loki's head to draw him closer. He felt Loki's hands on his waist; their cool temperature made him shiver.

Again, it was Loki who broke the kiss, but he didn't pull away completely this time. Tony grinned at him, and Loki cupped his face with his hands and kissed him again, fiercely but just briefly. 

“You are very warm,” Loki said then, breathing the words against Tony’s lips, and Tony had to smile.

“Well, yeah. Human here.”

Loki hummed. He trailed his fingertips over Tony’s cheek, over his beard. “May I take off your glasses?”

Oh. Tony had completely forgotten about that. Actually, he forgot most of the time that he was even wearing them, just because there was hardly a moment he wasn’t wearing them. JARVIS was his greatest weapon, after all, and his friend; Tony never really felt safe without him. He was used to see everything in a slightly orange hue, but he could imagine that Loki found the glasses a bit annoying. And yes, Tony himself had to admit that wearing them during this was a bit ridiculous.

He nodded, and Loki smiled. That alone was worth the slight discomfort Tony felt when Loki carefully took off his glasses and set them down on the piano. Tony blinked, adjusting to the colors that were now just a bit brighter, and then he quickly got aware that Loki was watching him with a very odd look on his face. Tony couldn’t think of another word for it than  _ fondness, _ and he couldn’t hold Loki’s gaze.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

Loki’s expression shifted into something amused, which was much easier to handle. “Why not?”

“It’s weird.”

“Is that so?” Loki said, smiling one of his razor smiles. His fingers wandered lower, over Tony's neck and down to his bare shoulder. “I’m not making you nervous, am I?”

Tony’s breath had caught in his throat, but he still managed to narrow his eyes at Loki. “You wish.”

“Oh, yes, I forgot. You are not easily flustered.” Loki leaned in and kissed Tony’s cheek before letting his lips wander further to Tony’s ear. His hands were back on Tony’s sides, holding him close. “Let’s see if we can change that, shall we?”

“Feel free to try,” Tony got out. 

He caught a hint of Loki’s grin from the corner of his eye before he felt Loki’s mouth on his jaw, on his neck, on his throat. A few open-mouthed kisses on sensitive skin, then the careful scrape with teeth - Tony flinched at that, mostly just in surprise. Loki made a soothing noise and raised his head again, pressing close and claiming Tony’s mouth again. Tony was fully aware that Loki just wanted to distract him from the feeling of his teeth on Tony’s throat, but to hell with it; he was perfectly fine with being kissed again and forgetting anything else.

Grabbing fistfuls of Loki’s hair, he pressed himself against the vampire as closely as he could and set about deepening the kiss. Loki responded in kind at once, lips partening for Tony’s tongue as he met it with his own. Their position was a bit awkward, what with them both sitting on the small piano stool, so Tony quickly decided that he would be much more more comfortable sitting in Loki’s lap. 

Loki sucked in a sharp breath when Tony straddled him, and Tony laughed, raking his fingers through Loki’s hair. “Who’s flustered now, huh?”

“Stark,” Loki said, a warning note in his voice.

Tony raised a brow. Yeah, it was really about time for the last name thing to disappear. “Tony.”

_ “Anthony,” _ Loki murmured and nuzzled Tony’s nose with his own, lips brushing Tony’s in a kiss. “Yes.”

He sounded a little absent, and Tony wasn’t entirely sure what Loki was affirming, but he couldn’t bring himself to really care at the moment. Loki ran his hands over Tony’s back, slowly, taking his time mapping the muscles and following the bumps of Tony’s spine. It was a simple act, and still it felt achingly  _ intimate, _ though that might have been just because Loki didn’t even once look away from Tony’s eyes. 

It had been too long since Tony had let anybody touch him like this; he wasn’t used to it anymore. Well, actually nobody had ever touched him like this at all - sure, he’d had his fair share of lovers, but none of them had been more than a quick fuck in dark alleys or abandoned warehouses. That was all there really was for people like him. Other hunters might have been more lucky - Steve and Barnes, for example -, but Tony? Tony had never been able to trust anyone enough to let them get this close, to let them into his houses and into his bed, repeatedly. And why should he? He’d never even wanted that, had never wanted  _ someone _ enough to take the risk. Sex was nice, but it wasn’t vital, and Tony’s paranoia had kept him alive so far. And besides, he had a job to; he just didn’t have time for more than an occasional flirt.

So this? 

This was new.

“Is something wrong?” Loki asked, and while his voice was a rather impatient drawl, Tony could see the hint of concern in his eyes.

Tony smiled crookedly and shook his head. “I’m fine.”

And he was. That was the weirdest part. He felt safe in Loki’s lap, in his hands, and his attention was something Tony just couldn’t get enough of. Nobody had warned him that this whole thing would be so goddamn addictive.

He kissed Loki again, just to switch his thoughts off. It worked remarkably well, especially when Loki made a content sound that quickly turned into a quiet moan. And fuck, Tony  _ loved _ that sound already. He wanted more of it, and most of all he wanted more of  _ Loki, _ and his hands were quick to start opening the buttons of Loki’s dress shirt. 

Loki paused and looked down at Tony's hands. “Are you sure?”

“Mhhm. I'm sure that I'll yeet myself out of one of your ridiculous windows if I don't get you out of your clothes.”

“Ah,” Loki said. “I see.”

Tony looked at him, hands stilling. “ _ I see?  _ Really? Is that all you've got to say?”

“What else do you want me to say?”

“Well, you could be a tiny bit more enthusiastic for a start, but -”

He cut off with a surprised sound that was only almost a yelp when Loki suddenly lifted him up, his hands firm and strong under Tony's thighs. Loki set him down on the piano, ignoring the dissonant sounds of the keys, and ran his hands over Tony's thighs up to his hips. 

“I have been quite  _ enthusiastically _ thinking about doing this ever since I saw you for the first time,” Loki said, his voice deliciously low. He brought his hands up and continued where Tony's had left off, opening the last buttons of his shirt. “And I fear that, if I don't hold myself back at least a little, I will ruin you. Thoroughly.”

“Oh,” Tony said. He was distracted by the view of Loki's pale chest when Loki pushed his shirt off his shoulders.

Loki hummed in agreement and placed his hands under Tony's thighs again, leaning in for a too short-lived kiss that had Tony panting.

“I would make sure that you enjoyed it, of course.” Loki cupped Tony's jaw and brushed his lower lip with the pad of his thumb. “I wonder how much it would take to render your clever mind incapable of clear thought, hm?”

“Huh,” Tony said. “You know…”

“Yes?”

Tony wrapped his legs around Loki's waist and put a hand on the back of his neck, pulling him so close that their lips were almost touching. “This might just be one of the few remaining functional instruments on the continent, and I shouldn't be sitting on it.”

Loki blinked at him.

“You should take me to your bed and ruin me there, is what I'm saying.”

Loki's mouth stretched into a grin that he promptly pressed against Tony's lips, coaxing them to open with his tongue, which was much more clever than it had any right to be. Not that Tony was complaining, mind you - Loki kissed like there was nothing he would rather be doing right now, his movements fierce but oddly unhurried, as if he knew that Tony wasn’t going anywhere. As if he wouldn’t  _ let _ Tony go anywhere before Loki was done with him, and that - yes, Tony kind of liked that. Nobody had ever wanted him enough to want to keep him, and now it made his head spin.

When Loki pushed at Tony’s chest, Tony let himself fall back and at first didn’t even notice that it shouldn’t have been possible. He was still sitting on the piano, after all, and there should have been a music rest in the way and the keys should have protested, but Tony just ended up lying on something horizontal and soft.

“What -”

“My bedroom,” Loki interrupted, settling down between Tony’s spread legs, fingers dancing over his thighs.

Tony propped himself up on his elbows, staring at Loki. “Fuck,” he said. “You’re amazing.”

Loki actually looked a little startled, and Tony couldn’t help but laugh. Before Loki could even frown at that, Tony already sat up just enough so that he could slide his hand into Loki’s hair again and pull him down to him. Loki groaned into Tony’s mouth, the sound making Tony shiver all over, and was quick to push Tony back into the mattress. Loki’s weight on him was one of the best damned things Tony had ever felt and there was not much else he could do but melt under it. An impatient sound escaped him when Loki broke the kiss, although he could really use the air. Loki chuckled, his lips still pressed to the corner of Tony’s mouth, and shit, that sound did  _ things _ to Tony.

By now, he was used to the fact that Loki’s mood could change the entire atmosphere in a room, was used to the second-hand trepidation he felt when Loki was pissed or devastated. He guessed it had something to do with Loki’s other abilities; whenever Loki’s mood was bad like that, humans who didn’t have an arc reactor in their chest like Tony probably stumbled over themselves in their need to make him happy again. 

And although it never had been nearly as strong, Tony had also felt hints of the  _ opposite - _ one of Loki’s sincere smiles could brighten up the whole fucking house, and when he was content, everything just… seemed a little lighter. That had also been a bit creepy at first, but by now Tony adored it. It didn’t really affect him, after all, it didn’t make him  _ do _ anything; thanks to the device in his chest he was just a witness, nothing more. And well, he did like to see Loki happy, so obviously he also liked the effects Loki's happiness had.

He still wasn’t prepared for  _ this. _

Loki’s eyes were bright, somehow even greener than usual. He looked  _ happy _ as he looked down at Tony, and Tony could feel that exact feeling resonating in the air around them, so intense that he could almost taste it.

“You’re doing something,” he said, his voice hoarse, the words slipping out even though he hadn’t wanted them to.

Loki frowned slightly. He pushed himself up, his hands on each side of Tony’s head. “You really do notice that, don’t you?”

“Yeah, sure.” Tony grinned, running a hand over Loki’s back. “Feels a bit like there’s a sun stuck to the ceiling.”

Loki raised a brow at the comparison, but didn’t comment on it. “I’m afraid I can’t make it stop.”

“Good,” Tony said firmly. “Because I like it.”

The look on Loki’s face shifted into something fond, and he leaned down to kiss Tony again. It was much softer now, but that didn’t make it less intense. Tony began thinking that that was just something he would have to get used to, because apparently everything Loki did was intense _ , _ this way or another. 

“You’re thinking too much,” Loki declared quietly, lips brushing over Tony’s cheek. “Stop.”

Tony grinned lazily. “Make me.”

That seemed to be exactly what Loki had wanted to hear, because now he immediately set about putting every sort of clear thought out of Tony’s mind. He started by kissing him, again, but soon enough his lips found their way to Tony’s neck. It very quickly made Tony gasp and squirm, which had less to do with the touch itself than with how much Loki seemed to like it; he had a thing for Tony’s neck, apparently, especially for the spots where he could feel Tony’s blood pulsing under the skin.

And that made sense, really, since he  _ was _ a vampire. What didn’t make sense was how much Tony adored it - adored the sounds Loki made, everything between pleased hums and full on growls, adored how it felt when Loki licked a broad stripe over Tony’s throat, from the hollow between Tony’s collar bones over his Adam’s apple to his jaw. That was nothing if not possessiveness, completely unhidden, and Tony  _ reveled _ in it. Loki didn’t bite him, didn’t use his teeth for more than running them over Tony’s skin as if to remind him that he had them, but soon Tony almost found himself wishing that Loki would use them  _ properly. _

Thankfully, he didn’t have time to worry or even think about that now. Instead, he just continued enjoying himself as Loki finally started paying attention to Tony’s chest, getting his hands and mouth all over it. More than once he pressed his nose against Tony’s skin and breathed him in, his hands holding Tony still. Tony didn’t really understand that, but he didn’t mind it, at least not until Loki started nuzzling his side. It had Tony flinching and huffing a breathless laugh.

“Lo, c’mon, I’m  _ ticklish -” _

Loki straightened and sat back on his heels between Tony’s legs. With his hands on Tony’s hips, he pulled him close with surprising roughness and placed his legs on Loki’s own thighs. His eyes drank in the sight of Tony while his hands swiftly opened Tony’s pants, and Tony might have forgotten to breathe.

“I want you to smell like me,” Loki said, his voice as raspy as it hadn’t ever been before. “And you will, after this.”

Okay, fuck, so Loki had been  _ scent marking  _ him. Right. That was - god, Tony didn’t know what it was and honestly he didn’t care, because the next thing Loki did was pull Tony’s cock free and give it a few experimental strokes, slow and firm and  _ perfect. _

Tony cursed and didn’t even try to keep himself from thrusting up into Loki’s fist. He’d been wanting to have Loki’s hands on him for so long that the sole knowledge that this  _ was _ Loki’s hand was almost enough to make him come on the spot. He dug his fingers into the sheets, gasping and - yes, okay,  _ whimpering  _ under Loki’s touch, but just a bit. Loki had clever fingers, which was entirely unsurprising, and it was embarrassing how little they had to do to make Tony feel absolutely wrecked already. He’d just wanted this for too long.

When Loki leaned forward again, Tony was glad to have Loki’s shoulders to hold onto and returned Loki’s kiss with vigor. It ended up being more than a little messy, with Tony whining into Loki’s mouth every time the vampire’s fingers did something especially wicked. Loki seemed to like it; his eyes were completely dark when he looked down at Tony, tongue flickering out to wet his reddened lips. 

“I want to be inside you,” he said lowly. His hand on Tony’s cock slowed down a little. “I want to have you on your knees and fill you up and cover you completely, until you feel and know  _ nothing _ except me.”

“God, yes,” Tony gasped out.  _ “Yes.” _

Loki grinned, and for the first time Tony thought that he’d just caught a glimpse of fangs. He couldn’t take a closer look at them, though, because they were already kissing again, even messier this time. Soon Loki sat up again and all but tore Tony’s pants off. Then he turned Tony around, flipping him onto his stomach as if he weighed nothing - which he probably didn’t, at least not for Loki. It sent a thrill up Tony’s spine and he scrambled up on his knees but kept his upper body down on the bed, grinning triumphantly into the mattress when he heard Loki give an appreciative moan. The vampire shifted behind him, and Tony could feel one of Loki’s hands wander over his back all the way up to his nape, where it squeezed just briefly before letting go. It came to rest on the curve of Tony’s ass, then, where Loki slowly pulled his nails across the flesh. Tony let out a sigh in reaction and closed his eyes - he was impatient, but Loki didn’t seem to be in a hurry, and if he wanted to drag this out, Tony certainly wouldn’t complain.

“You’re beautiful,” Loki said, out of the blue and so matter-of-factly that Tony actually  _ blushed. _

He hid it by snorting and said, “You say that just because I’ve got my ass in the air for you.”

“Oh, yes,” Loki said. “For  _ me.” _

The pleased sound of Loki’s voice made Tony shiver, and he couldn’t think of anything clever to say in response. Thankfully, Loki didn’t seem to expect an answer, because one of his hands was reaching between Tony’s legs again. He took hold of Tony’s cock and stroked him while pressing a finger of his other hand in between Tony’s cheeks, rubbing at his entrance. Tony gasped, mostly in surprise because, somehow, the finger was  _ slick,  _ and Tony had no idea where that came from.

All those thoughts about magic being weird and frustrating? Yeah, scratch that. Tony  _ loved _ it.

He pressed back against Loki’s finger, and Loki chuckled and quickly gave Tony what he wanted. It had been some time since anybody had been  _ in _ Tony, so even the slight stretch of Loki’s finger felt a little weird at first. It was Loki, though, and Tony was pretty sure that he would have let Loki do anything to him right now just as long as it meant they got  _ closer. _ As close as possible, that was the only thing Tony wanted right now. 

Loki pushed a second finger in and started dragging them in and out of Tony, spreading the weird magic lube and pressing as deep as he could reach. When he hit Tony’s prostate for the first time, Tony grunted and arched his back at the feeling, wanting Loki to do that again and again and again until Tony couldn’t grasp a single clear thought anymore. Loki muttered something that dimly sounded like praise and began fucking Tony with his fingers in earnest. He let go of Tony’s cock, which Tony was actually thankful for - he didn’t want this to be over too soon -, even though it left him throbbing and leaking onto the sheets. 

Loki shifted behind him, pushing himself against Tony’s backside with one hand on Tony’s lower back to keep him still. Loki was still wearing his pants, but Tony could feel the hard outline of his cock press against his ass, and it had Tony rather desperate.

“Lokes, I’m  _ ready, _ now -”

“Ah, no,” Loki cut him off, stroking over Tony’s back. “You’re ready when I say you are.” He pressed his fingers against Tony’s prostate hard, making him moan. Tony could  _ hear _ Loki’s smirk when he said, “You make the loveliest sounds.”

“I’ll make even more of them when you’re fucking me, so get out of your damn pants already,” Tony shot back, gasping when Loki’s fingers picked up a faster rhythm. 

“Soon,” Loki promised, his voice quiet and low. “I want to take my time with you, love.”

Tony squeezed his eyes shut. Alright, fuck, that was it, now he wouldn’t be able to deny Loki  _ anything. _

Not that he wanted to deny Loki anything, anyway. Loki’s fingers alone were a wonder - but of course, Tony had expected that; he had seen Loki play the piano, after all. Soon enough he was all but melting into a puddle under Loki’s touch, gasping and moaning quietly whenever Loki’s fingers hit that perfect spot. Loki’s free hand couldn’t stop touching every part of Tony’s body it could reach, and even though he was mostly silent - no heavy breathing, no sounds except the occasional low hum or sigh -, Tony knew that Loki was enjoying himself. Hell, his pleasure was almost  _ tangible. _ Tony couldn’t accurately describe it if he’d tried, it didn’t make any sense whatsoever, but what did that matter? It felt  _ lovely, _ and it didn’t take all too long until Tony felt like he was drunk on it.

He barely even noticed when Loki withdrew his fingers, but he  _ did _ notice when something much thicker pressed against his entrance. He let out a low whine in reaction and Loki stilled, but only for a moment. The head of his cock slipped into Tony easily and as soon as Tony felt that he just wanted  _ more.  _ Loki gave it to him, and soon his hips were pressed to Tony's ass. He leaned forward and wrapped one arm around Tony's belly, his chest coming to rest on Tony's back, lips on his shoulder. He didn't move for a while, giving Tony time to adjust. After a moment he took Tony's hands and put his own on top of them, pressing them into the mattress, but apart from that he stayed still. And Tony couldn't move, either, he just - couldn't do anything at all, really.

He'd never felt quite this  _ full. _ Loki was as deep inside him as he could even go, but that wasn't even all. Loki's body on Tony's was cool and heavy, his weight pressing Tony down until he was almost lying on his belly, and it felt - different. Too much, somehow, and at the same time not nearly enough. Not nearly  _ close _ enough.

When Loki started rolling his hips, using his grip on Tony's hands as a leverage, Tony made a noise that didn't sound human. Loki let out a moan of his own, low and guttural, almost a growl. His thrusts were slow and shallow and so damned  _ deep,  _ and soon enough Tony was trembling under him. With the side of his face pressed into the mattress and his hands pinned to the bed, Loki so entirely on top of him, he couldn't move or even try to meet Loki's thrusts; he could only lie there and feel every inch of Loki's cock as he slowly dragged it in and out of Tony, never once leaving him completely. Every time he bottomed out in Tony, he brushed against Tony's prostate, and the pleasure that was pooling hot in Tony's belly was stretched so taut that he felt like he was going to burst with it. His cock, trapped between his stomach and the bed, was so hard that he wanted nothing more than to touch it. It wouldn't take more than a few strokes and he'd be coming all over himself, but Loki made no move to touch it and Tony wanted to use his own hands; Loki's hold on them felt far too perfect.

Tony was half aware that every thrust made him whimper by now, but he didn't care in the slightest. Loki's name tumbled off his lips rather often, too, among other things - curses and pleas and other nonsense; nonsense Loki seemed to appreciate. Every time Tony whined his name, Loki fucked into him a little harder and dragged his teeth over Tony's back. The latter fucking hurt, which only seemed to make Tony's blood boil a little hotter. The thought of bite marks all over his back made his hips twitch, desperate to grind his cock against the bed.

Loki's voice only barely broke through Tony's haze, but when it did, it quickly became one of the very few things that still mattered.

“You are going to come just from this, do you hear me?”

He wasn't even out of breath, because of course he wasn't. Tony could only moan in response, and Loki reacted with a particularly hard and well-aimed thrust. He picked up a slightly quicker place, then, fucking finally, and Tony panted and whimpered in time with Loki's movements, Loki's voice still ringing in his head. Maybe Loki was still talking to him, Tony had no idea, because he was so  _ close  _ now and he wanted so much and so badly and Loki was everywhere, inside him and all around him and he felt so goddamn  _ good _ and Tony -

Tony came with Loki's cock deep inside him and Loki's name on his lips, and it was sudden and overwhelming, making Tony dizzy. 

When the last waves of his orgasm subsided, Loki had stopped moving. He was still inside Tony, though, and also rock hard. Tony squirmed a little, and Loki pressed his lips to Tony's shoulder before he slowly started to pull out. But he stopped quickly, as soon as Tony made a protesting noise.

“Anthony?”

Tony's brain needed a few seconds to come back online, and his voice was a barely audible and certainly incomprehensible mess when he said, “But you're not done.”

Loki stayed quiet for a moment. “I could take a while,” he said then, a gentle warning.

Tony snorted. His breaths were slowly evening out, and he couldn't remember ever feeling this comfortable. “S'not like I've anywhere to be.”

“Are you not sore?”

Yes, he was. Tony kind of loved it, though. “Lo. C'mon. Want you to come inside me.”

That was all encouragement Loki needed. He shifted them both so that Tony was lying on his side, Loki firmly pressed against his back. Loki ran a hand over his chest, gentle and careful, and buried his nose against Tony's neck. 

“You feel so good, darling,” he murmured, the endearment making Tony flush. He could  _ feel _ Loki's smile. “So much better than I ever even dared to dream.”

“Mhh,” Tony managed, moving a little. The feeling of Loki's cock, still nestled deep inside of him, made him gasp. “Sap.”

Loki chuckled and kissed Tony's neck. He wrapped his hand around Tony's cock, and the gentle touch was enough to make Tony hiss and buck his hips. He  _ was _ a little sore, but he still hardened again quickly under Loki's fingers. Loki soon grabbed Tony's hip instead, maneuvering him into a position that allowed Loki to nicely thrust into him. He held Tony so tightly that he might have left bruises on his hip, but Tony could hardly even think about that when Loki started fucking him again, his movements slow but hard. Tony was already gulping for air, his hand grasping Loki's, looking for something to hold onto. It was far too much, especially so soon, but Tony wanted nothing more than for Loki to finish inside him, and it felt so  _ good. _

He didn't know how long Loki fucked him. Tony just knew that he himself came again  _ twice _ , from Loki's cock and from Loki's fingers stroking him, gentle but demanding, and Tony knew that he had never felt so completely blissed out. And even then Loki didn't  _ stop,  _ Tony begged him not to stop, and he let Loki pull out just long enough so that he could arrange Tony until he was on his back. Loki fitted into the space between Tony's legs perfectly and into  _ Tony _ even more perfectly, and now his thrusts started to be punishing. Tony was all but sobbing now, but Loki kissed him and kissed him and kissed him until Tony didn't even notice anymore how sore he was. 

Eventually, Loki's thrusts became erratic, and when he came it was with a shuddering groan and his face buried in the crook of Tony's neck. Tony almost came again just from that, the pleasure pulsing through him lazily, his thoughts slow and light. 

It took a while, but after some time Loki raised his head again and kissed Tony, just pressing his lips on Tony's firmly before he slowly sat up and pulled out. Tony winced, but Loki soothed him with gentle hands running over his skin. There was a tingle of something very warm, before the pulsing pain in many of Tony's muscles and limbs turned into a pleasant soreness, the satisfactory feeling of just having been thoroughly and expertly used.

“Handy,” Tony rasped, managing a lopsided grin.

Loki agreed with a hum. One of his hands was on the back of Tony's neck, suddenly, and lifted his head. “Drink, will you?”

Tony blinked against the light that fell through the window - right, the sun must have risen ages ago - and saw that Loki had magicked up a glass of water. Also handy, he thought, but didn't comment on it this time. He just did as Loki had asked and drank, then let his head fall back into the pillow. The sheets beneath him felt clean, just like his own body, as if he'd already taken a shower. 

“Amazing,” he muttered. “ _ Really. _ ”

Loki just snorted and rolled Tony onto his side so that he could lie down behind him. He wrapped his arms and legs around him, pressing as close as possible, and Tony let out a content sigh and snuggled into it. Loki's body was just a little warmed up, but all in all still blessedly cool.

“Lo,” Tony said, around a yawn.

“Yes?”

“M'gonna sleep for a long time now.”

“As long as you like.” Loki firmly pressed his lips against Tony's neck and held him even tighter. “You're safe here.”

Tony had already known that, of course, but it was still nice to hear.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all I'm sorry this took so long, time has just completely lost its meaning. Also there will be six chapters instead of five! Because I never manage to stick to my plans. Enjoy. ❤

There was just the tiniest, briefest, most fleeting moment of panic when Tony realized that a), he was in a room in which he had never woken up in before, b), he was sore all over and c), someone who was not breathing was holding him. The arms around him immediately loosened, giving him room to turn around, and then Tony found himself blearily looking into bright green eyes.

Oh. Right.

“Good evening,” Loki said, and Tony wanted to laugh.

Loki. Of course it was Loki. 

“Hi,” Tony rasped, and then he surged forward and captured Loki’s lips with his own, just because he could.

Loki let out a surprised sound, but then he kissed back and turned Tony’s exuberance into something soft and gentle. Loki's lips were just as cold as Tony remembered, and even though the kiss remained chaste it made Tony feel warm all over.

“You know what's creepy?” he asked as soon as they pulled apart.

“Enlighten me.”

“Watching me sleep. That's creepy.”

Loki was unimpressed. “I couldn't see anything but the back of your head.”

“Are you implying the back of my head isn't interesting to look at?”

“Yes,” Loki said, but his eyes were already glinting with amusement.

“That's just incredibly rude.”

“Yes,” Loki repeated, and Tony snorted a laugh. It made Loki smile for real, his expression fond as he looked at Tony.

Tony cleared his throat, trying to get the sleepiness out of his voice, and looked away for a moment. The room was lit by dim rays of sunlight falling through the window, but it looked like the last sunlight of the day. Tony had never been in Loki’s bedroom before, but he wasn’t surprised by how it looked. Lots of dark wood and different shades of green, and with a very nice view of the ocean. It was a little messier than Tony had expected, though; there were books lying around the floor and piled up next to the bed. No coffin, Tony realized, unable to keep from grinning.

“How long have you been awake, anyway?” He asked, turning back to Loki.

Loki had to think about it for a moment before he said, “Since last Tuesday.”

For a second, Tony thought Loki was joking, but he really didn't look like he was. “Wait, really?”

Loki arched a brow. “Does that surprise you?”

It shouldn't have surprised Tony, that much was certain. Sure, most vampires needed to spend all their days sleeping, but Tony had also heard of Elders who could go weeks without any rest. And obviously Loki was one of those, given that he wasn't even bothered by sunlight.

“No,” Tony said slowly. “No, not really.” He studied Loki's face, then asked, “How long can you go without sleep?”

The amusement in Loki's eyes was entirely gone, he was frowning now. “That depends.”

“On what?”

“On how much I drink, and how often.”

Oh.

Tony swallowed. “Yeah, I - I guess that makes sense.” He decided to change the topic, because this one was starting to feel a bit awkward. “So you were awake the whole time today?”

“Yes.”

“Wasn't that boring as hell?”

The uncomfortable look on Loki's face slowly disappeared. “No,” he said. “No, it was actually quite lovely.”

“Mh, I bet it was.”

“I mean it,” Loki insisted. Then, “How are you feeling?”

Tony snorted and squirmed a bit, trying out what his limbs thought about being moved. They protested a bit, but Tony could live with that. “I'm okay. I mean, my ass hurts a bit, but,” he grinned, “not in a bad way.”

Loki's smile returned. He shifted closer to Tony, one hand between his cheek and the pillow. “I will not offer to heal you, then.”

Tony was still grinning, but he found himself being distracted by a strand of black hair that had fallen into Loki's eyes. He had never seen Loki with messy hair like this. Even when they had been fighting, no curl had dared to move out of a line, probably with a little of magical aid. _Vain bastard,_ Tony thought, rather fondly, and reached out to brush Loki's hair out of his face. Loki let him, but he did raise a questioning brow.

Tony just shook his head, and instead of explaining what had gotten into him - he had no real idea himself, so who cared? - he asked, “Will it always be like that?”

Loki seemed amused. “Like what?”

“Like -” Tony stopped, then gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I mean, I’m sure you’ve noticed, but your stamina is _way_ off the charts.”

“Yes, I’m well aware.”

“So that’s normal for you guys?”

“I suppose.” Loki’s amusement turned into a frown. “Does it bother you?”

“No,” Tony said at once, shaking his head. “No, just - I just noticed.”

Now that Tony actually thought about it, it was sort of a wonder that sex was a possibility at all - oh, sure, he’d known that some vampires liked having fun with humans, it certainly wasn’t out of the ordinary, but still somewhat surprising, what with their bodies being practically dead and everything. Maybe that was the reason Loki took so long to come. Actually - hm.

“Does it also have something to do with when you last fed?”

Loki’s face fell at once; every hint of fondness and amusement disappeared as if they had never even been there at all. He sat up, turning away from Tony, and moved to leave the bed. “I will take a shower, I think. There should be something edible in the kitchen for you.”

Uh oh.

“Hey, no, wait -”

Tony wanted to reach out and grab Loki’s arm to keep him from leaving, but before he could even touch him, Loki turned around and took hold of Tony’s wrist. It didn’t hurt - actually, Loki’s grip was fairly gentle, but Tony still forgot what he had wanted to say, too shocked by the anger in Loki’s eyes. The room felt much colder all of a sudden.

“I assume your curiosity isn’t sated yet,” Loki said, his voice icily calm. “So, yes, it does also have something to do with when I last _fed._ Which was four nights ago, just in case that interests you, too. Would you like to hear the details?”

Tony’s heart was beating so fast that he could almost feel it in his throat. “Loki, I - I think you misunderstood something there, I didn’t -”

“I take that as a no,” Loki replied. He let go of Tony’s hand and stood up, making a beeline for the bathroom. 

The door slammed shut behind him.

“You’re a drama queen, you know,” Tony said, knowing exactly that Loki could still hear him. He didn’t get an answer.

Tony let out a sigh and rubbed his eyes. Next door water started running. Tony wondered why Loki even showered; he’d proven in the morning that he could literally magic himself clean. Probably he just did it to calm down, which - yeah, that didn't make Tony feel guilty at all.

He got up and started looking for his pants, or just any piece of clothing, really. He didn't find anything, although he was very sure that they had tossed some things aside in the morning. Maybe Loki had magicked the clothes away; he had also cleaned the sheets, after all, damned perfectionist that he was.

Tony soon gave up his search and just took a look into Loki's closet instead, which was less a closet than an entire room filled to the brim with clothes. It was a tiny bit overwhelming, but Tony managed to find a sweater that was as comfortable as it looked like, and with the arc reactor covered up he felt a little less vulnerable. 

He marched into bathroom, then, because there was hardly anything else could do. It was a bit overwhelming as well, what with the giant tub in one corner and the spacious shower, and lots of clean tiles and glass. And a very wet and naked Loki, too, and that - yeah, if Tony forgot what he had wanted to say, who could blame him?

Loki looked at him through the glass wall of the shower, brushing his wet hair back with one hand. A moment passed, then he reached out and turned the water off.

“What?” he asked, managing to fit so much boredom and general reluctance into a single word that Tony felt himself raise a brow.

“You're angry,” he said, slowly. “Okay, I get that -”

“Why, I am so glad that you do.”

“Turn off the sarcasm for like, two minutes. Okay? I -” Tony took a breath. “I didn't mean to - offend you, or anything. Feeding, that’s just what I was taught to call it. It doesn't mean I -”

“You do not think me an animal?” Loki interrupted, his tone caustic and cold. “A beast? A monster? Is that not what you were taught?”

And what could Tony say to that? Of course it was what he'd been taught. It was also what he still believed, in a way - but, hell, it wasn't anything _personal._ He adored Loki, he _loved_ Loki, but that didn't change the fact that Loki was a vampire. He needed human blood to keep existing; Tony couldn't just ignore that.

In reaction to Tony's silence, Loki's expression - and the entire room along with it - darkened even more. “I cannot change what I am,” he said, turning away. “And I will not apologize for something I can't change.”

Yes, so this was just great. The first day they were - this, whatever they were, exactly, and Tony had already managed to hurt Loki's feelings. Again. 

The water started running again, and Tony stood there, sighing. He knew Loki; he'd manage to spend the whole night in the shower just to keep Tony from talking to him properly. And because Tony was just as stubborn, he simply pulled his - or rather Loki's - shirt over his head and joined Loki in the shower. 

Loki glared at him, but Tony held his gaze and turned off the water. “I’m not demanding an apology here,” he said. “And I don’t think you’re a monster, either. But I - look, you _are_ a vampire, and I’m not, and I still… I need to come to terms with that. And for that I need to understand how it works, how _you_ work, exactly, so I - I’ll keep asking insensitive questions, and you can either deal with that or…”

He trailed off, not knowing what to say.

“Or what?” Loki prompted. He’d stopped glaring, although only reluctantly.

“I don’t know. Send me away?” Tony shrugged, and he couldn’t look at Loki anymore. “There aren’t many other options, I think.”

There was a hint of frustration in Loki’s eyes. “I want you to stay,” he said. “As long as you wish.”

“That’ll be a long time, then,” Tony replied, forcing himself to grin. “I guess we better make this work.”

Loki frowned slightly, and then he stepped past Tony out of the shower, careful not to touch him. “Are you hungry?”

“What?”

Loki rolled his eyes. He waved his hand and was suddenly both dry and dressed, causing Tony’s brows to shoot up almost to his hairline. “Take your time,” Loki said. “I’ll be in the kitchen.”

And then he disappeared, because who needed doors and corridors and stairs, anyway.

After a long moment, Tony turned on the water again and took a shower himself.

///

When Tony walked into the kitchen not much later, he was more than surprised to see Loki in front of the stove. The sight actually made him freeze. He'd never seen Loki cook before, and that he was cooking now could mean two things: either this was supposed to be an apology, or he'd put some poison into the pan to to with the eggs. Knowing Loki, both was equally likely.

Tony walked up to Loki, careful and just a tiny bit wary. “What are you doing?”

“The word you are looking for is 'making', dear, not 'doing',” Loki replied. “I am _making_ omelettes.”

“You're a real pain in the ass, you know.”

“You consented,” Loki said. “Very enthusiastically, even.”

Tony snorted, but their earlier argument still hovered in the air between them, and it made him uncomfortable enough that he wasn't up for their usual banter. “Why are you making omelettes, is what I meant.”

“I've read that food is highly recommended after physical overexertion,” Loki said, taking two plates out of the cupboard. “For humans, that is.”

Tony opened his mouth to ask if the omelettes were poisoned, but caught himself in the last second. He didn't think that Loki would appreciate a joke like that right now. “Uh. Right. Thanks, I guess?”

“You'll have to make your own coffee,” Loki told him, carrying the plates over to the table. Over his shoulder he threw an impressively dark look at the coffee machine.

Tony raised a brow. “Okay, let me guess, you couldn't figure out how it works.”

The look Loki gave him now was even darker. 

“Oh my god. You don't know how the coffee machine works.”

Loki simply wrinkled his nose and took a pointed sip of his tea. 

Tony shook his head and turned to the coffee machine to get it started. Vampires were so _useless_ sometimes. He’d wondered before why Loki even _had_ a coffee machine, and now he thought it had probably just been here when Loki had moved in. The poor thing probably had been ignored for decades before Tony showed up.

When he finally had a coffee mug in his hands, he sat down across from Loki at the table and began eating, not because he was particularly hungry, but because it gave his hands and mouth something to do. It also kept him from talking, which he supposed was good? Well, at least he couldn’t say any insensitive stuff that way.

“I am not very good at this,” Loki said after a long stretch of silence, his tone quiet. He seemed to think that his cup of tea was very fascinating, because he kept staring down at it rather than at Tony.

“Uh, no,” Tony said around a forkful of omelette. “No, this is actually really good. I always end up burning them, but -”

“I am not speaking about the food,” Loki interrupted, sounding a bit exhausted.

“Oh,” Tony said, staring at Loki. He blindly wanted to take another bite, but then he realized that his plate was already empty. “Er. Well.”

Loki sighed and pushed his own, untouched plate in Tony’s direction. Tony accepted it and poked the food with his fork for a bit. The silence became uncomfortable very quickly.

“I, uh,” Tony said, then stopped to clear his throat. “I mean, same? This is - I’ve never done something like this before. Because -” He used the fork to point at the window. “The world out there is kind of ending, you know, and I’ve been busy saving lives and annoying lots of dead people, so. Not much time for… stuff like this.”

Loki nodded slowly. He was looking down at his tea again. “I do not remember my last lover’s name.”

For a moment, Tony could only stare at him. Then he said, “Look, I have no idea what you want me to say to that.”

Loki’s smile was faint and disappeared again very quickly. He leaned back in his chair, fingers clinging to his cup. “I spent decades with them, but I hardly remember. Because of my age, of course, but also -”

“Your age?” Tony cut in, confused.

Loki sighed. “When I say I am old, I am not talking about a few centuries. No mind is suited for accommodating that many memories, not even a vampire’s.”

“Oh. That’s - that’s fucking awful, actually. I’m sorry?”

Loki seemed honestly surprised. “Why would you be sorry?”

“Because of that lover of yours? If you can’t even remember their name, that’s really -”

“No,” Loki interrupted, surprise shifting into resignation. “No, I don’t mean it like that. I never even really liked them, although - well, not liking someone requires thinking that they matter at least in some way, and I certainly didn’t. They didn’t matter to me at all.” He glanced at Tony, briefly. “They all but kissed the ground I walked on, of course. It was very entertaining.”

Tony put down his fork. He wasn’t hungry anymore. “For a while,” he said tonelessly, and Loki nodded.

“For a while,” he echoed.

“So what’s this, then?” Tony asked, voice dripping with a bitterness he couldn't keep in check. “Because if it’s you telling me that you’ll forget me, anyway, then -”

 _“No._ No, I -” Loki took a breath he didn’t actually need, and he spoke his next words unusually quickly. “I am trying to say - you see, when they died, I realized that a lover is simply… not something I need. And I also decided that I would not take one again, because it all seems pretty pointless.”

Tony stared at him. “Yeah, you really aren't good at this.”

Loki ignored him. “I thought that nothing could surprise me anymore, but you - you did. You do. And it does take me by surprise how much I want you by my side.” He frowned and looked away. “And how much it would hurt if you left.”

Tony felt a little like he'd been hit in the face. In a good way, though, or at least he thought that it was good; actually he had no idea what he was thinking at all. What were you supposed to think when somebody told you stuff like that? Shit, he wasn’t used to people being honest to him, most of all he wasn’t used to being honestly _wanted -_ but then again, Loki definitely wasn’t used to that, either. And he also wasn’t used to being honest like this, probably; Tony could tell that Loki was very much Not Comfortable with this entire conversation.

Tony’s throat felt a little tight. “So you’re not going to forget me, then?”

“No,” Loki said, watching him tensely. “I think I couldn’t if I tried.”

There was something about this that Tony’s brain just couldn’t deal with. Here Loki was, an _ancient_ being who must have seen just about everything this world had to offer, and Tony had managed to surprise him. Tony had managed to make Loki _want_ him. And, judging by the fact that they were having this conversation at all, it was clear to them both that this wasn’t just some kind of fling or a one-night stand (or a one-day stand, rather). No, apparently they were both in this for good, and even though the thought made Tony panic, it also made him feel - very fucking good, actually.

“I realize that I could have worded some things better,” Loki said, his tone very careful. “I’m sorry if I -”

“Shut up,” Tony said, and then he shoved aside the two plates so that he could take the shortest route to Loki’s lap.

Loki seemed a little shocked when Tony climbed over the table, but before he could open his mouth Tony was already kissing him, his hands on Loki’s shoulders while he slid off the table to straddle Loki’s thighs. 

Loki’s hands automatically came up to Tony’s sides to hold him, and soon their grip became tighter as he pulled Tony closer. The kiss remained gentle, though, and Tony soon melted against Loki’s chest, relieved that this was still something he was allowed to do. They hadn’t managed to fuck it all up already, after all.

“I take it I haven’t offended you,” Loki said, smiling, and Tony huffed a laugh and shook his head.

“Nope. No. I’m not offended. I mean, I was offended for like, two minutes, but then you saved the day.”

“Ah. Well, I’m glad. Was breaking my teacup necessary, though?”

Tony hadn’t even been aware until now that he had pushed the cup off the table, too. “Uh. Yes.”

“Hm.”

“Collateral damage,” Tony said. Then, “Look, we’ll figure this out. It’ll get awkward sometimes, but we’ll make it work. Okay?

Loki looked at him for a moment, still smiling, and eventually he nodded. “Yes.”

“Great. Can we go back to bed now?”

Loki blinked. “Are you still tired?”

“Tired of being dressed, yeah.”

“Oh,” Loki said. “Yes. I see.”

Tony grinned. “I’m not sure if I’d survive getting fucked by you for the second time today, though.”

Loki actually laughed at that. “That’s quite alright,” he said, pressing his lips to Tony’s cheek. His voice dropped lower when he added, “I can think of many other lovely things I could do to you.”

Tony wasn’t sure if he would survive that, either, but hell, he was up for it.

///

California had approximately twenty-six rainy days per year, and even on those days it didn’t rain the _whole_ day, but just a few _hours_ a day, so all in all there was very little rain. 

Somehow, Tony still managed to be on a hunt _every_ time it rained.

He was cowering on a rooftop, where he had a good look on the building on the opposite side of the street. It was cold and wet, and he was having no fun at all.

“This sucks,” he grumbled, brushing his wet hair back for the about thirtieth time. “I want to go home.”

 _“I know, sir,”_ JARVIS replied, using a tone that directly translated to _you’re repeating yourself._

Tony sighed. He was reasonably sure that the building he was watching served as the hideout of a younger vampire, but so far he’d seen no sign of her. He had traced her tracks down to the basement and had looked around the building at noon, but apparently she had spent the day elsewhere. By now the sun had already disappeared, and Tony hoped that she would return home at some point in the next few hours. If she didn’t, he would catch a cold at some point in the next few hours, and while ‘cold’ wasn’t a synonym for ‘death’ anymore, it still wouldn’t be pleasant.

Also, Loki was probably waiting.

_“Sir, someone is approaching.”_

Oh, great.

Tony squinted at the dark street below him. His glasses highlighted the silhouette of the person who was just entering the building. It was the vampire he was looking for, and Tony wasn’t sure whether he was relieved or annoyed. Well, at least he knew where she was now, but he also suspected that she had just fed - no, had just drunk, and that meant that she was very strong and possibly high right now. It wasn’t easy to deal with that, but Tony had been hunting her for almost two weeks now and he was tired of finding corpses in her trail.

 _“Sir, do you think this is wise?”_ JARVIS asked when Tony was already down on the street, approaching the building.

Tony grinned and shook his head. He had to stay quiet now, otherwise the vampire would hear him. He picked the lock of the front door and slipped into the building quickly and quietly. There were two stories plus the basement, and according to his glasses Tony was alone with the vampire, who was currently rummaging around upstairs. In other nights he might have kept a low profile and searched for a good spot from which he could catch her off guard, but due to the rain and the wait he had lost all patience he’d ever really had. 

So he directly made his way up to her, and of course she heard his footsteps. When he saw her coming out of a room, he already fired his gun, but she dodged the bullet and was directly in front of him just a second later. Tony didn’t feel like getting into a hand to hand fight right now, but he didn’t really have a choice when she attacked. It was very rude of her, and he planned to teach her some manners by burying one of his knives in her chest, but first he had to acknowledge that yes, _fuck,_ she was very strong indeed and also had no chill whatsoever. She used her claws like he wanted to tear him apart, which she probably wanted very much, and even though he would acquire a few new bruises, he had expected the claws - what he hadn’t expected quite as much were the teeth.

The serum was flowing through his veins like always when he was hunting, and usually that kept vampires from biting him, because the serum made his blood _reek,_ and blood that reeked was usually sick, and vampires knew better than to drink sick blood. Probably the serum had worn off slightly after hours spent waiting, because this vampire definitely didn’t seem to care, if the sharp, stinging pain that shot up Tony’s arm was anything to go by. 

He grunted, eyes widening, and tried to free his arm - but she was stronger, of course, and all that shoving and tearing just caused them to lose their balance and tumble down the stairs, which was just _perfect_ . Fine, Tony should have known better than to start a fight on a staircase, yes, but he hadn’t expected her to fucking _bite_ him. 

At least she let go of his arm as they fell to find something to hold onto, and Tony used that moment to use his knife like he’d planned. Soon enough, the vampire stopped moving, and Tony sat on his - now also bruised - ass at the end of the stairs and regretted his life choices.

The wound on his arm wasn’t pretty. She had missed his artery, thankfully, but the flesh was still a bloody mess, and the pain was already starting to make him dizzy. He cursed and gritted his teeth, pulling one of the bandages he always carried out of his pocket and wrapped it around his arm. Pulling the knot tight with his teeth, he hoped that it would at least stop the bleeding until he got home.

Tony rummaged through his pockets until he found a lighter, then he burned the vampire and left the building. By the time he had made his way back to his bike, which he had hid in an alley, his glasses showed him a new red dot, and he stopped.

The red dot was very close to a blue dot. Tony hated all kinds of dots right now.

Still, if there was another vampire hunting in this area, Tony would at least like to know. He had to be a bit more careful now; even with the serum his bloody arm was the equivalent of a neon sign that read “look, human here!”, and he didn’t want to get into another fight tonight.

He left his bike where it was and had JARVIS come up with the shortest way to the two people, hoping that they were just a vampire and a human having a nice midnight chat. Because why not, right? Tony really didn’t have the right to judge any humans who socialized with vampires.

Sadly, it soon became very obvious that a nice midnight chat was not what was happening here. When the dots were only a street corner away, the blue one suddenly distanced himself from the red one, and not much later a human - male, somewhere in his thirties, giggling as if he had just seen one of those ancient cat videos you could only find in technically illegal online places - staggered past Tony and away into the night. 

Tony let him go, because even though the guy didn’t seem like he was in his right mind, he also was very much alive and looked like he would stay alive for now, and therefore what happened to him was neither Tony’s business, nor his problem.

What was _definitely_ his problem was the vampire who had just walked around the corner.

“Are you kidding me?” Tony asked, staring at him. “What are you doing here?”

Loki didn’t seem to share his irritation, but it looked like he did share his confusion. He was standing there with his hands in his coat pockets, green eyes slightly widened under raised brows. “Oh,” he said.

 _“Oh?”_ Tony echoed. “What does that mean, _oh?_ Didn’t we agree to _not_ get in each other’s way? What did you even -”

“I didn’t realize I had followed him this far,” Loki interrupted, frowning now. “I didn’t mean to - _are_ you bleeding?”

“What?”

A second later, Tony almost got a heart attack, because Loki had disappeared from where he’d stood and showed up again right there in Tony’s personal space, which could be unnerving in a really good way when they were at home, but was unnerving in a really _bad_ way when they stood in a dark alley in the middle of the night and also in the middle of what could become a _discussion._

“Shit, Loki, I’ve told you before -”

“Yes, yes,” Loki said. “ _Warn a guy,_ I know. What is this?”

He had already grabbed Tony’s arm and lifted it, inspecting the bandages. They were wet from the rain and blood had soaked through them here and there, and all in all Tony supposed that he looked pretty miserable. Loki was already so tense that Tony was willing to forget about the possible _discussion_ for a while.

“It’s fine,” he said. “It’s nothing, I’ll live.”

Loki narrowed his eyes.

“Really, Lokes, it’s alright. I’ll even let you heal it, come on. Would you -” He started responding to Loki’s glare in kind. “Stop looking at me like that. Why are you looking at me like that? I’m _telling_ you, it’s -”

“Someone bit you,” Loki interrupted. His tone was dark enough that Tony blinked at him in surprise.

“Uh. Yes, someone bit me. That happens sometimes when you are, you know, a vampire hunter who hunts vampires. Vampires bite things sometimes.” 

“They should have known better.”

Tony raised a brow. “Yes, well. I guess? I mean, it surprised me, too, what with the serum and all, but she didn’t really have anything to lose.”

Loki’s glare intensified, and he tore the bandage using nothing but his nail, not even bothering to open the knot. Tony stared - he knew that Loki’s prim and perfect nails could turn into claws when he wanted them to, but Loki didn’t often let him see that. _All_ vampires had claws like that, though, so it hadn’t really been a surprise. It was the same with Loki’s teeth; he kept his fangs hidden, too. 

Loki started unwrapping Tony’s arm with very careful and gentle hands, and Tony, knowing it would have been pointless, didn’t try to stop him. He did sigh and roll his eyes, though. Still, he had to admit that it was a fucking relieve when Loki let his hand hover over the wound for a few seconds, green mist seeping into Tony’s skin. It took just a few seconds until the bite wounds closed up and disappeared as if they had never even been there before. Running his hand over Tony’s arm, Loki also got rid of Tony’s blood, making it fade until his arm looked good as new.

“Is she dead?” Loki asked then, his fingers now gently clasped around Tony’s wrist.

“Of course she’s dead,” Tony said, bewildered. “I’m not an amateur. Loki, what’s wrong?”

Loki let go of Tony’s hand. “I don’t like it when you’re injured.”

“Duh,” Tony said. That was the truth, he knew, but somehow he felt like there was more behind it than Loki was willing to admit. 

“Are you done here?” Loki asked, obviously wanting to change the subject. He still seemed pissed, though.

“Yeah. I just wanted to leave when I saw you two.”

He frowned, looking after the human man. He knew what Loki had done to him, of course; he wasn’t stupid. And even though they had been together for a few months now and he had seen Loki shortly after he’d drunk several times now, it still made Tony feel a bit uneasy. He didn’t have to like it when his lover went around drinking other people’s blood, right? Nobody would like that.

There might have been a bit too much emphasis on the blood belonging to _other people,_ but well. Nobody needed to know that.

“He'll be fine,” Loki said. “He has a place close by where he can stay.”

“Great,” Tony said, looking back at Loki. “Let's go, then. I left my bike -”

“We are _not_ going to take your bike.”

“Well, I'm not going to leave it here and teleport with you,” Tony countered. Loki looked very grumpy, so Tony rolled his eyes and turned around to leave. “Fine, okay. I'll see you at home.”

It didn't even take two seconds until Loki was next to him, his hand firmly holding Tony's.

Tony couldn't keep from grinning. _Home_ always worked. Loki gave him a dark and knowing look, but that just made Tony’s grin widen. Loki signed, resigning himself to his fate, and not much later he sat behind Tony on the bike, his arms wrapped tightly around Tony’s middle. He spent the drive back to the coast nuzzling Tony’s nape, and although Tony enjoyed that, he still felt like something here was a little off.

He wasn’t too worried. Loki was weird, that was just a fact by now. He had mood swings, and most of the time he didn’t like talking about whatever went on in his millennia old head. It had taken them weeks to adjust to the fact that they were _together_ now, and it didn’t always go smoothly. That they were both hunters who were technically on opposite sites didn’t help, but they had managed to come to some sort of agreement. Loki had promised not to suck any humans dry - though apparently he hadn’t killed his victims before he had met Tony, either, but only because he didn’t want the human population to dwindle. Which was at least something, Tony guessed. He knew that he would just need to come to terms with the fact that humans were _trivial_ in Loki’s eyes. He didn’t just see them as prey, no, but he also didn’t care for them. Tony would always be the lucky exception, which was both mildly worrying and immensely satisfying. He would manage to deal with it in time, just like Loki would manage to deal with Tony’s general dislike for vampires. 

So, anyway, Loki didn’t kill humans, which was good. He had promised not to get in the way of SHIELD, either, which was also good. In return Tony had agreed not to hunt any older vampires without talking to Loki first. Loki didn’t seem to care much for the younger ones - they often were uncontrollable, so Loki actually approved of it when Tony got rid of them.

Sometimes, his lover’s ruthlessness scared Tony. Sometimes he just found it unfairly hot. No, he didn’t like what that said about himself, either, but what was he supposed to do? _Not_ be head over heels in love with Loki?

Yeah, as if.

The rain stopped just when the garage gate opened for them, and Tony could throw a sour look upward before he drove the bike into the garage. Loki chuckled behind him and didn’t stop when Tony told him to shut up, because of course he didn’t. Tony was just glad when the gate closed behind them and dry clothes and a warm shower were only a couple of stairs away.

The garage was a part of the basement, which Loki had finally shown him just a few weeks after Tony had returned to him. Since then it had quickly become Tony’s favorite part of the house. That had been a surprise, because if there was one thing he despised with all his heart it was being under the ground or just in a room without windows, but the basement never made him feel trapped. It was gigantic, for one thing, and filled with so many cool things that Tony always forgot very quickly that there were no windows. 

Loki used the basement as a workshop, although that was not what he called it. There were lots of tools and materials on different desks, papers and books and sketches lying around everywhere, all chaotic in a way that just seemed chaotic when you weren't the one all the stuff belonged to. Tony had not the slightest clue what it all was, because it was all very old and very magical and very vampiric, but he knew a workshop when he saw one. By now he'd seen Loki work, too - or, well, he'd seen him brood over a book or scribble something into a notebook, mostly. Loki wrote a lot, in a language that looked more like runes than actual words. The words seemed to just pour out of him sometimes, and then it was better when Tony left him alone for a few hours. 

Tony didn't mind that - actually he liked it, because it gave him time to work on his own projects. Loki had cleared some tables for him, and Tony had brought lots of his stuff over so that he could work here, too.

It was a bit… odd, how comfortable Tony was with it. But well, wasting time just wasn't something he _did_ \- he grew up in a world where his skills and time were all that actually belonged to him, after all, and when he had already made his decision, hesitance wasn't an option anymore. And when he called Loki's house “home” now, it was the truth.

Tony was already half lost in thoughts when he parked the bike, ready to shower and warm up and then bury himself in work. And get Loki to make him something to eat, maybe. (As it had turned out, Loki was the better cook _by far._ No surprise there.) 

Tony threw his gloves on the closest desk and took off his boots, and he just wanted to turn to Loki to ask him if he was up for sharing a bath when Loki was already right there in front of him. Once again, Tony flinched.

“You _have_ to stop this shit,” he said, but he was already laughing. “One of these days I'll just shoot you by reflex and then you'll be -”

Loki kissed him. Tony's breath got caught somewhere in his throat, surprised by the force of it when Loki pressed him against the desk. Loki was already shoving Tony's coat off his shoulders, but Tony barely even noticed because he was so distracted by Loki's mouth and his tongue and his _teeth._ God, his teeth, they never failed to drive Tony mad, not even when he was tired and achy and wet and cold - Loki's mouth on his neck still made him melt and moan. 

Loki actually growled. Honest to god _growled,_ and fine, maybe it wasn't that unusual - he did go a _tiny_ bit feral sometimes, starting with stuff like scent marking - but it still made Tony shiver all over. Loki kissed him again and kept kissing him until Tony was gasping and desperate for air. Meanwhile Loki's hands were busy tearing off Tony's gun holster and tossing it aside, careless. He opened Tony's belt and fly and immediately pushed his hand down Tony's pants, cool fingers wrapping around his rapidly hardening cock.

Tony swore, his own hands clinging to Loki's shoulders. Loki was rarely ever this _fast,_ usually he liked to take his time. Now, though, he seemed to want to make Tony fall apart as quickly as possible. Tony couldn't do much else than buck his hips into Loki's touch, arousal tight and hot in his belly.

He could have come right then and there, it wouldn't have taken long with how Loki was working him, but apparently that wasn't what Loki wanted. Soon he let out an almost frustrated noise, hand slowing down and lips now hot and wet on the corner of Tony's mouth, but not kissing him anymore.

“Anthony,” he said, his voice low and already absolutely wrecked. “I _want -”_

“Yes,” Tony got out, impatient. “Fuck, yes. Anything.”

Loki made another sound coming from somewhere low in his chest, something bone-chilling and _brilliant,_ and then he grabbed Tony's hips and turned him around, pushing him against the desk. Tony grabbed the wood, needing something to hold onto because Loki's strength never failed to make Tony's legs wobbly, and groaned when Loki yanked down his pants to bare his ass. Apparently, Loki was unwilling to waste any time on undressing either of them completely, because now he was already pressing two slicked fingers into Tony, who moaned and pushed back against Loki's hand, just as impatient. As soon as Tony's hole was slick enough, Loki replaced his fingers with his cock and thrust into him until he bottomed out, hips pressed against Tony's ass.

Tony was panting and gasping, for a moment unsure if what he was feeling was pleasure or pain. Either way, it was fucking _good;_ Loki's cock made him feel so full that he just couldn't think about anything else anymore. 

Behind him, Loki made a pleased sound, almost another growl. He dug his fingers into Tony's hips, holding him firmly in place, and Tony _knew_ that he would have bruises there later. The thought made him whimper, and Loki seemed to take that as the sign to move, because he started fucking Tony in earnest now, his pace hard and unrelenting. Tony moaned and whined in time with Loki's thrusts, helpless and unable to do anything except take what Loki chose to give him. 

It went on until Tony's thighs were trembling, until he couldn't form any clear thoughts or words anymore, just fragments of pleas and possibly Loki's name. But it still didn't take _long;_ in fact, it was all very fast by their standards. And while Tony's orgasm wasn't a surprise, _Loki's_ definitely was. He came just a few seconds after Tony, spilling deep inside him while Tony was still trying to rearrange what was left of his brain into something that made sense.

He didn't want to move. Thankfully, Loki didn't make him move, he just leaned forward and pressed kisses to Tony's clothed shoulder. 

Then again, Tony thought, maybe Loki coming wasn't that surprising. Usually, he needed much longer than a human body would, but it hadn't even been an hour since he last drank, and that always made him a bit faster.

The desk was getting uncomfortable.

“Loki,” Tony said, only almost slurring.

“Yes?” Loki answered at once, sounding unusually meek.

Tony sighed and propped himself up on his elbows to rub his eyes. “Let's take a bath.”

///

They took a bath.

Tony wasn't sure where that idea had come from. He wasn't usually a fan of water, and he still wasn't, but he'd thought that the combination of water and _Loki_ could be a good one. And he had been right.

Loki's bathtub was gigantic, so Tony could sit comfortably between Loki's spread legs and lean against his chest. Loki had done some sort of magic trick which kept the water from cooling down, which was very practical, and he gently nuzzled Tony's while washing his chest.

He was being very sweet, and also very clingy. And while he was often sweet and clingy - Loki was a goddamn octopus in disguise, at least so Tony thought every time he woke up with Loki's limbs wrapped around him -, this whole thing was starting to feel a bit weird.

Tony was too tired to think about it, but he couldn't just stop thinking about it. It had to have something to do with his earlier hunt, with the vampire biting him. Since then Loki had been weird. Or maybe that wasn't it, maybe it had been the man he'd drunk from? Hopefully he hadn't been sick somehow, because Tony had not the slightest clue how to deal with a vampire who had the flu. 

But Loki wasn't sick. If he'd been sick, he wouldn't have fucked Tony like that earlier. It could be that he'd just been extra horny after drinking - that happened sometimes -, or maybe he'd felt protective after Tony had been bitten. Or -

Wait.

Tony stared at the ceiling for a bit. God, he was just. Exceptionally stupid. He didn't usually need this long to _get_ things, especially when they had something to do with Loki. He'd gotten good at reading Loki by now.

He swallowed. What to do with this, now that he knew what was going on?

“Loki,” he said, carefully.

“Yes?”

“Are you -” No. “You're jealous.”

Loki's hand stilled on Tony's chest. Seconds ticked by, then he said, “Yes. Very.”

Well, at least he wasn't denying it.

Tony's mind was reeling. “You're - jealous of that vampire drinking my blood? Or just. Of me hunting other vampires in general?”

Loki wrapped his arm a little tighter around Tony's chest, holding him close. “The former.”

Of course.

Tony had _no_ idea what to think about that.

“Huh,” he said.

Loki let out a sigh. “I'm sorry,” he muttered, burying his nose in Tony's chest. “I assume I shouldn't have… jumped you like that.”

“What? No. I had fun. Just.” Tony tried to make sense of his own thoughts, which wasn't very easy at the moment. “That was what, you… _asserting your claim_ or something?”

Loki was very tense behind him, but he made no move to push Tony away. He didn't say anything for quite a while, though, until Tony already thought that he wouldn't get an answer at all.

“You _smelled_ like her,” Loki said then, very quietly. “It was even worse than the serum.” He hissed softly, and Tony could almost taste his anger. “She should never have even _touched_ you.”

“Loki, I've been bitten before,” Tony said, feeling a bit lost. “It's not a big deal. I mean, it sucks when someone just pounces you like that, sure, but it's not - I didn't think it would matter to you.”

“Of _course_ it matters to me. You might not feel the difference, but every vampire should be able to smell it.”

Right, now Tony was definitely lost. “Smell what?”

Loki still held him tightly, as if he was scared that Tony would pull away. He pressed his lips to the soft skin behind Tony's ear, very gently. “You belong with me,” he whispered. “And if any vampire gets to taste your blood, it will not be one of _them._ It will be me.”

Oh.

Tony swallowed. He shifted a bit, until Loki reluctantly let go of him so that he could scoot forward. He didn’t say anything, but Tony could feel how nervous he was - it hung in the air around him, like always when Loki’s emotions got the better of him.

“Let’s - let’s get out of the tub,” Tony said. “Okay?”

He already stood up and grabbed a towel, and after a few seconds Loki followed suit. Tony didn’t manage to look at him, he just dried himself and left the bathroom to get some clothes. He nicked one of Loki’s shirts like he often did - they were very comfortable to sleep in - and sat down on the bed, still drying his hair.

“I made you uncomfortable,” Loki said. There was something heavy in his tone - something dark and sad. He was standing in the doorway to the bathroom, magically dressed and dry. His hands were clasped in front of him, fidgeting.

“No, I -” Tony paused. “I don’t know. Maybe a little. Give me a moment.”

“We can forget I ever said anything.”

 _“No.”_ Tony dropped the towel in his lap and looked at Loki. “Do you - you really want to bite me, don’t you? That’s what this is all about.”

“Yes,” Loki said, not even hesitating. He stood very still, his eyes narrowed; he was getting defensive. “I can’t help it.”

“No, I know, I -” Tony took a breath, fiddling around with the damp towel. “I’m not judging you. It’s just. A lot to deal with.”

“May I come closer?”

Tony looked back at his lover, his own shoulders sagging when he saw how tense Loki was. “Loki, I’m not _scared._ I’ve seen you argue with a coffee machine. Come here.”

Loki relaxed a little and came over, carefully sitting down next to Tony. “I wish you would stop teasing me about the coffee machine.”

“Yeah, life ain’t easy,” Tony drawled. There was a pause, then he said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Am I -” Tony frowned, uncertain. “Am I your… you know. Consort?”

Loki seemed surprised for the split of a second, then he sighed and shook his head. “Do you know what consorts are?”

“Pets?” 

“No,” Loki said, giving him a slightly miffed look. “Although I understand how it might seem that way. But then that would be the respective couple’s choice and therefore none of our business.”

Tony looked at him, unsure what to make of that. “Yes. Right.”

“It’s all a little complicated, “ Loki said. “But you could say that consorts are… well, voluntary blood donors. They give their blood, and in return their vampire provides for and protects them. They are… very close. Often lovers, of course, but not necessarily. Either way, it requires consent on both sides.”

Tony mulled that over for a while. “So it’s - you’re telling me I’m not the only human who has, you know. A normal relationship with a vampire?”

“I find it highly amusing that you consider our relationship normal,” Loki said dryly. “But yes, you are definitely not the only one. The first hunter, though, I think.” He paused, thinking. “If you would be interested in talking to others, I could introduce you to Thor’s consort. She doesn’t like me very much, though.”

Tony didn’t say anything.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah,” Tony said slowly. “My world is just - getting turned upside down, a bit. I always thought ‘consorts’ was some sort of euphemism, you know. Because ‘bloodvessel I keep in my basement so that I have access to fresh blood until it dies’ is kind of unflattering.”

“You know nothing about our customs,” Loki said, gaze darkening a little.

“Well, you took all of our customs from us,” Tony shot back, “so I think we’re entitled to some prejudices.”

“I suppose,” Loki agreed, deflating a little. “Well. For one thing, consorts usually don’t die. Unless they are murdered, which is a very stupid thing to do. Vampires don’t take kindly to their consort being taken away from them.”

“Okay,” Tony said. “You know, I’m hung up on that ‘consorts don’t die’ thing. I mean, I’ve heard rumors about people staying alive for a fucking long time as long as they stay around Elders, but -”

“Consorts stay alive as long as their vampire exists,” Loki explained, patient. He was still watching Tony very carefully, but all in all he seemed much more comfortable than earlier.

Meanwhile, Tony felt like his brain kept sending him error messages. How did one deal with stuff like this? “So I could, what? Become immortal?”

“So to say, yes.”

“Oh,” Tony said faintly. “That’s. Nice.”

“Is it?”

Tony shook his head, huffing a laugh. “I’ve no idea right now. Have you seen what the planet looks like? It’s all a - a giant mess. And humans don’t really get much older than fifty these days. The thought of immortality fucks with my brain.”

“Well,” Loki said, “you wouldn’t be alone.”

Tony looked at him, and Loki’s sad smile made his reeling thoughts come to a screeching halt.

Loki had been alone for ages. Centuries, maybe even longer. And in front of him were many, many centuries more, and if Tony understood this correctly, Loki wanted to spend them with _Tony._

“No,” Tony agreed, his voice a little hoarse. “I guess we wouldn’t be.”

Loki’s smile became happier, and that was almost enough to make Tony say _fuck it_ and bare his throat. But it wasn’t that _easy._ Actually, this was the most complicated thing he had ever even thought about.

“So, just so I get this right,” he said after a long moment of silence. “You want to drink my blood and make me your - consort. Yes?”

Loki lifted his shoulders. “As I said, it requires consent on both sides.”

“That’s not an answer, Lo.”

“Yes,” Loki said. “I do. But it is your decision, in the end, and I will not pressure you.”

Tony nodded. He had about a bazillion more questions, but he didn’t know where to start. He wasn’t _opposed_ to the whole thing, not really. He trusted Loki more than he had ever trusted anybody since Jarvis had died, and he loved him, too. So why not stay with him for as long as he could? Why not be as close to Loki as he could be? He wanted Loki to be _happy,_ and if making him happy meant that Tony had to give up a bit of his blood every once in a while, well. That wasn’t a big sacrifice, really. But - really, immortality? _That_ scared Tony to death. 

“Your glasses are blinking.”

It pulled Tony out of his thoughts rather abruptly. “What?”

“Your glasses,” Loki repeated, looking over Tony’s shoulder.

Tony turned around to take a look at his glasses that were sitting on the night table. A small light at the temple stem was indeed blinking; Tony had apparently gotten a message. It was never good when he got messages.

Frowning, he stretched to grab the glasses and take them on, sharing a look with Loki who seemed equally concerned.

“Yes, J, what’s up?”

_“You have two messages, sir. Director Fury and Miss Romanoff.”_

Tony raised his brows. “Okay, so fill me in.” JARVIS showed him the messages, and a moment later Tony said, “Oh, great.”

“Anthony? What’s wrong?”

“Well, I -” Tony made a face, still staring at the few words Natasha had sent him. “I’m being hunted, apparently?”

Way to ruin the mood.


	6. Chapter 6

Tony spent the next few days assuring Loki that, no, Tony did not want him to go on a killing spree right now, so naturally Loki started to sulk. Tony found the whole thing very amusing, but that might just be because he got a kick out of it every time Loki got all protective. Tony was aware that a lot of possessiveness played into it as well, but he didn’t mind that as long as it didn't get overbearing, and he didn't think that it would. It was intoxicating, in a way, to know that Loki would do everything in his power to keep Tony - as long as Tony wanted to stay with him, at least.

Still, Tony could tell that Loki was panicking a bit. It had been three days since he had gotten the messages now, and the lights in the house weren’t working properly anymore. Tony knew that trying to fix them would have been pointless, because this was Loki’s doing. He was being dramatic, and when Loki was being dramatic he tended to act like he was some sort of poltergeist. He didn’t do it voluntarily, not even consciously, which was why he got annoyed every time Tony mentioned it.

Tony got why Loki was worried, he really did. It wasn’t like he himself was happy about it. The message Fury had sent him had been nothing else than an ultimatum presented like an outstretched hand, an offer of help - as if Tony _needed_ help. Of course Fury knew that - if he had actually thought that Tony was Loki’s prisoner or something, he would have sent Natasha weeks ago. No, Fury suspected something much worse than that - he thought that Tony had switched sides. And let’s be honest here, if Tony _had_ switched sides, Fury would have been fucked right now. Because Tony against SHIELD, with the help of an Elder? 

Fury wouldn’t stand a chance.

So yes, Fury was scared. Suited him right, though. He was sticking his nose into things that weren’t his business, and if he actually thought that he had any right to make Tony choose between Loki and SHIELD? Yeah, screw him. Tony would find a different way.

It was good that Fury had sent Natasha. She might be one of his best agents, but she was also Tony’s friend, and he knew that she didn’t want to kill him. Oh, sure, she would have done it if she’d seen no other way - Tony was certain of that. But he could _show_ her another way, and according to her message she was willing to listen. She brought Clint along, too, which was good. He was a bit of a dork, but Natasha was more agreeable when Barton was there. As long as Loki wouldn’t attack them as soon as they came into sight, everything would be fine.

The chances that Loki wouldn’t do that were sinking, though.

They were in the kitchen. Tony had just had dinner - or well, breakfast; it was just after four am, but he usually had dinner around this time of the night by now - and was now having dessert. He was still sitting at the table, with his feet perched on top of it because Loki was too worried to scold him for that, and Tony was a firm believer that one should use one’s chances when they offered themselves.

“You shouldn’t have moved in with me,” Loki said, darkly.

“You’re being dramatic,” Tony reminded him around a spoonful of pudding. “I told you, it’ll be fine. Fury sent _Natasha._ You’ve met her.”

“Which is why I am not taking this lightly,” Loki snapped. He was leaning against the counter, his arms crossed.

Tony chuckled. “That’s just your wounded pride speaking. She put you in shackles, remember?”

“How could I not,” Loki drawled. The overhead light first flickered and then went out completely.

“Dramatic,” Tony said into the darkness, and after a second the light went on again. “Really, Loki, calm down. If your magic keeps going haywire like this, we’ll have to replace all the lightbulbs.”

“If they come here, I will kill them,” Loki decided.

“No, you will not,” Tony replied. “You can hypnotize Barton, though. I’d _love_ to get that on camera.”

Loki just huffed, and Tony laughed. It earned him a glare. “What’s so funny?”

“You,” Tony told him. “You’re being very funny. It’s adorable. Also I get what you meant by,” he made a point of imitating Loki’s accent, “‘vampires don’t take kindly to their consorts being taken away from them.’”

Loki stilled at that and stopped glaring, which was exactly what Tony had intended. “You are not my consort.”

“Not yet,” Tony said, grinning. 

The light shone a lot brighter all of a sudden.

Tony sadly had no time to comment on that, though, because something flared up on the edge of his HUD. He quickly activated his glasses, his dessert forgotten. He could see two dots approaching the house. “There’s something.”

“I know,” Loki said quietly. He had gone very still, head angled into the direction of the intruders, and then he disappeared.

Tony groaned and took his legs off the table. This would be fun.

///

He found all three of them in the driveway, just a few feet away from the front door. Just one look at the situation told Tony that they could have started off much better. 

Loki and Natasha were facing each other, both eerily calm. Natasha had a weapon pointed at Loki’s face, which Loki didn’t seem very impressed by. He had managed to get hold of Clint and now had him by the collar, sharp nails pressing into the skin of Clint’s neck in a manner that had to be very uncomfortable. Clint looked like he’d had better days.

Tony stayed in the doorway for a few seconds, looking at them all. “Should I be mad that you started without me?”

“Hello, Tony,” Natasha said, not looking away from Loki.

“Hey,” Tony replied and finally approached them. He came to a halt next to Loki. “And hi, Clint.”

Clint glared at him. “Hi.”

“Be silent,” Loki told him, and Clint’s mouth snapped shut. 

Loki’s lips twisted into a grin that showed far too many teeth - and also his fangs, which Tony hadn't ever seen before, at least not like this. He could only stare at Loki, at how _dangerous_ he looked, and for a second he wondered why Loki put on more of a show now than he had when they had gotten rid of Thanos together.

It was obvious, of course. Still, Tony's chest felt very warm when he realized that it was because Loki was protecting _him._

“Your friend has heart," Loki said, looking at Natasha. "But just to be clear on this, I _could_ make him jump off the cliff if I wanted to.”

“Not if I get to you first,” Natasha said, coldly enough that it chased a shiver up Tony’s spine.

Loki’s grin widened. “Shall we try and see if you can?”

“No,” Tony said. “No, nope. We’re gonna try nothing here. Loki, let him go.”

“No.”

_“Loki.”_

Loki yanked his eyes away from Natasha to give Tony a brief look. Tony could see him gritting his teeth. A few long seconds passed, then he finally gave Clint a push forward. It sent him stumbling, but Clint managed to catch his balance, and a moment later he stood next to Natasha, who made no move to lower her gun.

Great.

With a sigh, Tony took a step sideways so that he stood in front of Loki. Loki wanted to keep him from doing so by stepping forward himself, but Tony put a hand on his arm to keep him back. He held up his other hand in the universal gesture of _don’t shoot,_ but put on an unimpressed smirk to add _or you’ll regret it._

“Nat, come on. You’re not here to kill him.”

 _“He_ attacked _us,”_ Natasha said.

“He had a rough childhood,” Tony explained. “And I’m fucking tired of this. So either you put your toy away or this will take a very unpleasant turn for all of us.”

“He is -”

“He is mine,” Tony cut in, sharply. _“Mine._ My friend, my lover, my problem. Not yours. But if you really want to shoot him, fine, then you have to shoot me first. And we both know you don’t want to do that.” He grinned. “Also, just a warning - Loki will tear you to pieces if you lay a finger on me.”

Natasha was looking at Tony now, still calm. “Fury sent us to kill you.”

“Fury is a paranoid asshole, and if he really thinks I betrayed humanity, he’s also an idiot.”

Natasha and Clint exchanged a glance. Clint shrugged. Natasha looked back at Tony, and then she slowly lowered her gun. 

Tony let out a relieved breath. “Great! Great. Okay. Now that we’re all friends, let’s go inside and have coffee or something. And let Clint speak, goddammit.”

Loki was still grinding his teeth, but he said, “Fine.”

“I need my bow back,” was the first thing Clint said - he’d been trying to get out the words for about five minutes now.

“You can get it back when you leave,” Loki said curtly and turned around, walking back into the house.

Tony sighed. So much for this being fun.

///

Loki's fangs were gone again, but that didn't make his smile seem any less dangerous. Tony felt like he should tell him to back off and stop the threatening, but he didn’t because - well, fine, because it was sort of hot, but also because Tony was pissed himself. Which was his right, he thought, given it was his neck that was on the line here.

Loki had already sat down at the kitchen table, and after a moment of hesitation Nat took a seat across from him. Tony stayed standing, leaning against the counter with a coffee mug in his hands. (Nobody else had wanted some, but well. Their loss.) He and Clint exchanged a look when the archer hopped on the counter next to Tony to sit there, and Tony was about to tell Clint that he might want to get off there, but Loki was faster.

“Get off there, please,” he said, looking at Clint, and immediately Clint slid off the counter again.

“Stop that,” Natasha said, her tone calm and cold.

Loki’s smile turned from polite into sharp within just a second as he looked at her. “I’m not doing anything,” he lied.

“You’re influencing him. Stop it.”

“It’s hardly my fault that your pet is so suggestible,” Loki answered smoothly. He showed his teeth. “Or that he has no manners.”

Natasha’s eyes narrowed, but Clint just huffed. “It’s fine, Nat. Just ignore him.” Directed at Tony he added quietly, “You’re crazy, man.”

Tony just grinned into his coffee. He almost wanted Loki to show off some more, to really drive the point home. 

“Tony,” Natasha asked, barely even looking away from Loki. “Are you sure the reactor is working?”

Tony’s mood immediately worsened. He’d always hated it that SHIELD knew anything at all about the arc reactor, and he hated even more that Natasha _still_ suspected that Loki was keeping Tony here against his will. 

“Yeah, it is,” he said curtly. “Don’t you worry about that.”

Natasha finally looked at him properly. “Nick thinks you’ve switched sides.”

“He really _is_ an idiot, isn’t he?” Loki asked, almost fascinated. He glanced at Tony, smirking. “How many vampires did you kill in the last three months, Anthony?”

“Four,” Tony said. “Or was it five? I’m not sure.”

“Five, I think.”

“That doesn’t mean you’re not compromised,” Clint said, stubborn.

Tony rolled his eyes. “Look, Nat, I don’t know what you want to hear. I don’t know what _Fury_ wants to hear. I haven’t been with SHIELD in years, so this is _literally_ none of your business. Loki would have killed you already if I didn’t think we’re still friends.”

“We are.” Natasha’s tone was firm and her gaze steady. “And I know that you can’t stand Fury, but he does have a point. You know too much to be -”

“You have no right to tell him what he can and cannot be,” Loki cut in. “None.”

Tony could feel Loki’s anger in the air, making it feel colder than it should have been. He could tell that Clint and Nat noticed it as well; they both tensed noticeably. It filled Tony with a strange sort of satisfaction, and he couldn’t even try not to grin.

“What he said. Also, I won’t tell on you guys, Natasha. You’re right, I can’t stand him, but that doesn’t mean I want Fury dead. Tell him that.”

Clint didn’t seem convinced. “We just want to know what side you’re on.”

“And get rid of me when the answer isn’t the one you want to hear,” Tony added dryly. “I’m on my own side, birdbrain. Have been my whole life. Now my side also includes Loki, and there’s nothing anybody can do about it. So either deal with it or go sulk somewhere, but stop bothering us.”

Natasha actually seemed to accept that. She nodded, and then looked at Loki. “What about you?”

“Me?” Loki said, his smile perfectly innocent. “I wouldn’t worry about me. I’m harmless.”

“Stop playing,” Nat said, resting her arms on the table and leaning forward. “You want to protect Tony, fine, we got that. What else?”

“That’s also none of your business,” Tony said, getting a bit tired of reminding her of it. 

“No, he’s getting something out of this,” she insisted, not even looking at Tony. “And if that something is destroying resistance _again,_ it _is_ my business. They won once, I am not going to let them win again.”

“You fought in the wars, didn’t you?” Loki asked, leaning forward as well. “You were one of the very first who saw the Red Room. I remember Dreykov. I remember his puppets. If they hadn’t all looked exactly the same, maybe I would even remember you.” He was grinning again. “Is it the love for your former people spurring you on, I wonder, or is it guilt?”

Natasha stayed silent, but the look in her eyes was icy. Not much more was needed to make her reach for her weapon again, Tony knew, but thankfully Loki let off. His sharp grin turned into something amused and dismissive, and he leaned back in his chair again, unbothered by Natasha’s anger.

“Anthony and I would like to change things,” he said calmly. “Whatever our parts in the war were, I’m sure you agree that it can’t go on like this.”

Natasha frowned. “What are you planning?”

“There will be a conference,” Loki said. “My brother and I will try to convince the other Elders that a rearrangement is necessary. You would do well to call in a meeting of your leaders. I wouldn’t be surprised if the negotiations could start soon, and you should be prepared.”

So, _that_ was news to Tony. He tried really hard not to stare at Loki, aware that he shouldn’t call Loki out on his bluff. It wasn’t like they _weren’t_ planning to change things, it was just that they hadn’t done any actual planning yet. They had been kind of busy talking and fucking these last months.

“Negotiations?” Clint echoed.

“Yes, Mr. Barton,” Loki confirmed. “Do you know what that word means or shall I fetch you a dictionary?”

Clint looked at Tony, as if he was supposed to do anything about Loki’s attitude. As if he would ever do anything about Loki’s attitude. He loved Loki’s attitude.

Natasha seemed actually surprised, which was a rare sight. She turned to Tony, her brows raised. “Was _that_ your plan?”

Tony snorted and shook his head. “More like a positive side effect.”

 _“Really_ crazy, man,” Clint muttered, and that was it.

///

As soon as Natasha and Clint were gone, Loki visibly relaxed. He kept glaring after them for a few minutes, but that was probably just him being dramatic.

“See?” Tony said. “That wasn't so bad.”

Loki gave him a look. He didn't seem amused. “We should move.”

Tony raised his brows. “What?”

“They know where we live,” Loki said, walking past Tony into the direction of the windows. “I don't like it.”

“She’d find us again.”

“We do not even know how she found us now.”

“I do.”

Loki looked back at him, his expression dark. “You do?”

Tony shrugged. “Loki, Nat is one of the best trackers in the world. And I can make JARVIS’ systems as secure as I want, but she _will_ find a way into them if she wants to.”

Unsurprisingly, Loki was not pleased to hear that. When Tony had introduced him to JARVIS weeks ago, Loki had been first very impressed and then very wary. Rightfully so, he probably thought now, but Tony wasn’t going to apologize. Natasha was a goddamn force of nature; Tony couldn’t do anything against that.

“I could hide us,” Loki said finally, sounding very grumpy now.

“I think you're even more paranoid than me,” Tony said. “It's impressive.”

“And you are impressively calm about this,” Loki snapped. He let himself drop into one of the armchairs in front of the windows, looking like he was preparing for a sulk.

You'd think that Loki was a bit old for sulking, what with him being goddamn _ancient,_ but no, apparently not. Maybe you never got too old for sulking, or maybe Loki just liked it too much to give it up. 

Tony rolled his eyes, but he also knew that a sulk could very easily turn into one of Loki's darker moods, and he certainly didn't want that. Especially not because or something like this.

He walked over to Loki and sat down on the armrest of his chair. “They can't hurt me,” he said, reaching out to run a hand through Loki's hair. “You'd never let them.”

“Of _course_ I wouldn't,” Loki said at once, jaws clenched. “I want to obliterate them just for thinking about it.”

“I know, I know.” Tony patted Loki's head, which earned him a glare. Tony grinned at him, but it softened into a smile just a second later. “We could ruin them, you know. Completely. Why should I be worried?”

Loki laid his head back and looked at him. He'd finally stopped glowering, now he just seemed hesitant and thoughtful. “They are your friends, aren’t they?”

Tony shrugged. “Nat and Clint, yes. The rest of SHIELD, not so much. I left them for a reason.”

Loki nodded slowly. Tony had told him a bit about when he had stopped working with SHIELD and why, and since then Loki liked them even less. Apparently, everybody who couldn’t appreciate Tony and his skills was a moron in Loki’s eyes. And Tony wasn’t even going to pretend that he didn’t love Loki for thinking that.

“You… you would not have preferred to go with them?” Loki asked, sounding like he didn’t actually want to hear the answer. Before Tony could say anything, Loki added quickly, “You could have. I wouldn’t have tried to stop you.”

Sometimes, Tony wanted to shout at Loki until he realized that he didn’t have to be so _worried_ all the time. Shouting had never made anyone less worried, though.

“Loki,” he said instead, “didn’t you hear what I _said?”_ He nudged Loki’s chest, smiling. “I love you, and I’m not going to _leave_ you.”

For a moment Loki stared at him as if Tony had grown a second head. Then he said, “I am very sure that I did not hear you say that.”

“What?”

Loki still seemed nonplussed. He reached out to touch Tony, almost absently, just a hand on Tony’s side. As if to check that he was really there. “You didn’t tell them that you love me.”

Oh. 

“I didn’t?”

“No.”

“Huh,” Tony said. 

Actually, now that he thought about it - he hadn’t said it at all before, had he? He knew that he’d thought it a few times. A few times per hour, really. But he hadn’t _said_ it, not to Natasha and Clint and not to Loki, who should be the first to hear it, anyway. And now he had heard it.

“You did call me your lover,” Loki said, his voice just a murmur. “And your friend. You also called me your problem, which I’m certain was supposed to be a compliment.”

“Yeah.” Tony felt just a tiny bit woozy. “Sure was.”

“Did you mean it, then?”

Tony looked at him, saw both the hidden insecurity and the hope in Loki’s eyes, and felt like he might need to jump off the cliff and take a swim to clear his head off all those feelings. Only that he didn’t want to get rid of them, not really.

“Yeah,” he said again. “I did. I do.”

And, well - Loki _beamed._ There wasn’t another word for it. He also grabbed Tony’s hips and pulled him into his lap. Tony couldn’t keep from grinning back and put his hands on Loki’s shoulders, leaning in closely.

“And I you,” Loki said, the words not much more than a breath. “I am glad you wish to stay.”

Tony’s grin softened into a smile and he wrapped his arms around Loki as well as he could, pressing close to him. Loki hummed and held him tight, nuzzling Tony’s neck. Tony could only sigh in reaction; he liked feeling Loki’s mouth close to his throat more than he probably should have. He could feel Loki’s lips stretch into a smile. Loki also murmured something that didn’t sound like English, and that had Tony pull away a little to look at him.

“What was that?”

Loki’s dimples showed as he smiled, and he slowly shook his head. “Nothing. Now, I think we have a conference to organize.”

“Yeah,” Tony agreed slowly. “She’ll check if it was a bluff. I mean, it _was_ a bluff. But we shouldn’t let her know that it was.”

“Exactly.”

Tony studied Loki’s face. It had been a clever move and had certainly gotten Natasha and Clint out of their hair, but a part of Tony hadn’t been convinced that Loki had actually _meant_ it. “So,” he said. “A conference.”

“Yes.”

“A vampire conference?”

“Yes,” Loki said, frowning. “I need to speak to Thor, preferably tonight.” He hesitated. “Maybe it would be better if I went alone. I don’t think he would listen if -”

“If I was there,” Tony finished. “Yes, sure. Just -”

“Yes?”

Tony shook his head. He thought about how protective Loki was, and how far he was willing to go, for _Tony._ Tony still had trouble processing that, and suddenly he felt a little helpless. He shrugged and ran his hands over Loki’s chest, not looking at him.

“Be careful,” he said. “Fury’s an asshole. I don’t know if he -”

Loki’s smile returned. “My, are you worried?”

“Uh, I don’t think _you_ should tease me for unnecessary worry.”

“No, I probably shouldn’t.” Loki started to stroke Tony’s back. “Maybe we could use a distraction from the worry, hm?”

Tony knew that tone very well by now. Usually it meant that they would spend the next few hours in bed, which right now sounded like a fantastic idea. He grinned.

“What do you have in mind?”

///

Loki left at dusk and was gone the whole night. Tony would have preferred to go with him, but he understood that it wasn’t really the best idea. He also wasn’t that eager to meet Thor again, if he was honest, because the guy had really crept him out, and also - well, he and Loki were _brothers._ If Loki wanted to have that talk alone, Tony was fine with it. Had to be fine with it.

He still didn’t even try to sleep. Instead he tried to distract himself in the workshop, which didn’t work all too well but at least let him pass the time until Loki returned. Tony was relieved as soon as he heard steps coming down the stairs and stopped working when Loki came into sight, looking unusually tired.

“Hey!” Tony greeted him. “You look like you just had an extraordinarily annoying family meeting. I mean, not that I’d know, but that’s what I imagine people look like after annoying family meetings.”

“Thor is not actually _family,”_ Loki repeated, and he sounded about as tired as he looked. “He is more a bothersome appendage I can’t get rid of.”

“Sweet. How did the bothersome appendage meeting go, then?”

“He’s not convinced,” Loki said, leaning against Tony’s desk. “But he is willing to listen, and he agreed to a conference. It will be in about six months, depending on how fast Heimdall can find everybody.”

That was… good news, actually. Or at least Tony thought that it was. He knew that what they were doing - trying to do - was batshit crazy and that it probably wouldn’t work, but it _was_ worth a try. They could hardly make things worse. And sure, Loki might not be doing this because of altruistic reasons, but he _was_ doing this, and Tony trusted him.

It was an odd feeling, but he would get used to it. Hopefully.

“That’s great,” Tony said finally, looking up at Loki with a smile. “I guess. Who is that Heimdall guy, though?”

Loki sighed and rolled his eyes at the mere mention of the name. “One of Thor’s devotees. He has… very good eyes.”

“And he can’t stand you for some incomprehensible reasons.”

“Oh, no, his reasons are very comprehensible. I tried to kill him once or twice.”

Tony looked at him for a moment. “You know, I can never tell if you’re joking when you say things like that.”

“I am not joking,” Loki said. He lifted his shoulders. “Heimdall is the only one capable of finding me when I do not wish to be found.” He frowned. “Well, he and your _friend,_ apparently.”

Tony chose to ignore that. “Okay, so Heimdall can’t stand you, which is… fair, I think. Any other Elders you tried to kill ‘once or twice’?”

“A few,” Loki admitted lightly. “But to be fair, they tried to kill me, too.” He noticed Tony’s look and smirked, shaking his head. “You don’t need to worry. They will may not be very fond of me, but they will listen.”

“Okay,” Tony said, not very convinced, but willing to roll with it for now. “Uh. You can make vampires do things too, right?”

Loki seemed surprised, but he nodded. “To an extent, yes. Many Elders are decidedly more… complicated than younger vampires or humans, but that doesn’t mean they are not suggestible at all.”

“That’s good, then.” Tony thought about it for a moment, then said, “You know, I’m not sure if getting into a room with lots of Elders is the best idea I’ve ever had, but if things get hairy, you can just smile at them prettily or something. Right?”

Loki had started to frown when Tony hadn’t even finished his sentence yet, and now he looked downright uncomfortable. There was a too long pause, and eventually Tony realized that something was definitely up..

“What?” he asked, looking at Loki with raised brows. “What’s wrong?”

“Anthony, “ Loki said, very carefully, and that alone told Tony that he wouldn’t like what would come next. “I think it would be better if you weren't there at the meeting.”

Yup, Tony definitely didn’t like that. “Uh, no. Nope, no way. I’m so going to be there at the meeting.”

“You had nothing against staying behind tonight. Why do you -”

“ _Tonight_ you were talking to your brother, that’s different! I figured you had some - I don’t know, some private stuff to talk about, given that you’re planning to start a peaceful revolution with your human boyfriend.”

“Well, yes, but -”

“I’m going to come with you,” Tony interrupted firmly, but Loki didn’t seem willing to give in yet.

“You said it yourself,” he said, calm in a way that was obviously forced. “It will be a room full of Elders. You won’t be safe.”

“And _you_ just said that you can make them do things, too,” Tony countered. “And besides, isn’t it against the rules to even touch me? You said that I - _smell_ like you and everything.”

“It is against the rules to touch another’s consort, yes,” Loki said, getting impatient. “Touching another’s _boyfriend,_ however, is - very rude, but not necessarily a reason for punishment. And we have recently seen that not all vampires care about these things, haven’t we?”

“Okay, you know what?” Tony stood up, wanting to be at eye-level with Loki. “I get that you’re worried. I really do. But I’m not helpless, I can defend myself -”

“Not against several Elders at once.”

“- and also you will be there _the whole time._ And we both know you’d tear apart everyone who even tries to come close to me against my will. But apart from that, this isn’t -” Tony had to take a breath, trying to calm down. “It isn’t just about my safety, Loki. I don’t give a damn about safety. You’re planning to tell them that you want to reconcile with humanity somehow, dammit - on’t you think a human should be there?”

Loki’s expression was hard. “I can’t have you risking your life for this, Anthony.”

“But this isn’t _for you to decide!_ It’s up to me. And if I want to -”

“I won’t let you.” Loki’s eyes softened a little. “Anthony, I’m just - worried. I know you are used to danger, but -”

“Oh, come on,” Tony snapped. “You just can’t stand the thought of another vampire even _looking_ at me. That’s it, isn’t it?”

“We both know that you’re reckless,” Loki shot back. “And careless. Possibly also prone to self-sacrifice, but this - this is not a _game._ And I won’t let you sacrifice anything to -”

“Okay, no, shut up.” Tony pointed at Loki with the screwdriver he was still holding. “I am going to say this one more time and then never again, so you better listen. This is _not up to you._ Because this is not just about you and me, and even if it was, you don’t get to order me around, even if it’s to keep me safe. Clear?”

Loki didn’t say anything. Instead he just stood up and headed for the stairs, apparently planning to just _go._

“Oh, right,” Tony called after him. “Yes, very mature. Could you -”

“No,” Loki said, barely even looking over his shoulder. “You made it _very_ clear that this is not about me, and I’m sure you’d prefer it if I left you alone.”

“That is _not_ what I meant and you -”

 _And you know it,_ Tony had wanted to say, but then Loki was already gone. Tony huffed and tosses his tool on the desk. 

Now this was just great.

  
  


///

Tony found Loki in their bedroom. He was sitting on the bed and reading as if nothing was amiss, but Tony just needed to take a single look at him to know that Loki was just putting on an act. Loki looked up when Tony entered, but immediately turned back to his book, his face completely blank.

Tony sighed and got on the bed, sitting down next to Loki’s outstretched legs. “Stop sulking.”

“I am not sulking.”

“You so are.”

Loki glared at him, but Tony wasn’t impressed. He waited, wanting to give Loki the chance to say something, but after a long moment Loki just looked down at his book again. Tony averted his eyes, too, staring down at his hands. He was nervous and hated that he was, but he wouldn't stop being nervous until this was dealt with.

Finally, he cleared his throat. “I know you’re just trying to keep me safe.”

Loki turned a page. “And I understood that such attempts are unwanted. I’ll keep it in mind for the future.”

“No,” Tony said with a sigh. “No, they’re - not unwanted. I _like_ how protective you are, but it just. I just can’t stand it when people tell me what to do, you know? Not even when it’s you.”

“Duly noted.”

Tony groaned. “Come on, Loki, _please._ I’m apologizing here. _”_

Loki’s mouth was a thin line, but the look in his eyes lost some of its hardness. He sighed and let his book sink, seeming oddly tired as he looked at Tony. “I know. I’m not mad at you.”

“You obviously are.”

But Loki shook his head. “I am… _sulking,_ that’s all. I thought - well. I thought that this mattered more to you than our plans regarding the rearrangements, but I see now that I was wrong.”

Oh. Oh god. “Loki -”

“I don’t blame you,” Loki hurried to say, averting his eyes again. “I can’t blame you for having a good heart.”

“Loki,” Tony said again. “You’re talking bullshit.”

Loki looked at him again, displeased. “I beg your pardon?”

“Fuck, I - I don’t -” Tony grabbed Loki’s book and tossed it aside, taking Loki’s hands instead. “Okay, look. My life has always been sort of a mess, but you’re - you’re the best thing in it, okay? By far. Of course I care about the _rearrangements_ and everything, and I’d be willing to sacrifice a lot of things if it meant that future humans won't have to endure the things I’ve been enduring all my life, but -” He squeezed Loki’s hands. “That doesn’t mean that I care about you any less, or that what you want or think doesn’t matter to me. You’ve got to have a little more faith in this, Lokes. In us.”

Loki’s smile was very brittle. “I am not particularly good at faith.”

“Yeah. I know. That’s why I’m here.”

Loki’s small faltered, and suddenly he reached out for Tony and pulled him close, wrapping his arms tightly around him. Tony was surprised, but he also wasn’t complaining, and held Loki just as tightly in return.

“What if they decide they want you dead?” Loki said, not pulling away. His voice was very quiet. “I can’t take on all of them. Maybe Thor would help, but -” He took a shaking breath, his hands grasping the back of Tony’s shirt. “What if you got injured? What if you died?”

“Loki, I’m not going to die,” Tony said, somewhat horrified. 

“You can’t promise that.”

Tony pulled back so that he could look at Loki. “Yes, right. I guess I can’t. I can promise to do everything I can to stay alive, though. Would that be enough?”

Loki didn’t reply for quite some time. “It has to be,” he said then. “Does that mean you are not coming to the conference?”

“Oh, I’m definitely coming to the conference. I don’t want you to go alone.”

“But -”

“Would you feel better about me coming with you if I was your consort?” Tony blurted out.

Loki stared at him blankly. A few seconds ticked by until he managed to speak. “What?”

Tony huffed, hiding his nervousness behind a crooked grin. “C'mon, Lo, keep up. Making me your consort, would it help?” Loki didn't say anything helpful, so Tony continued, “They'd all know it, right? And if touching your boy toy is frowned upon but not actually against the rules, but touching your consort would get people beheaded, then you wouldn't have to worry so much if I was your consort, right?”

“My _boy toy?”_ Loki repeated, brows drawing together.

Tony looked at him for a moment, speechless. Then, “Did you even hear the rest of what I said?”

“Yes.” Loki leveled a glare at Tony, but it softened again almost instantly. “I appreciate your… offer. It's very kind.”

Unbelievable. "Loki, this isn't me being kind," Tony said. "This is me telling you that I've decided what I want and you can bite me." A beat. “And I mean that literally, not in the fuck off way.”

It seemed like the message still hadn’t arrived in Loki’s ancient brain. “No. I do not want you to agree to this just to join me at the conference.”

Tony was starting to lose his patience. “I’m not agreeing to this because I want to go to the damned conference, Loki. I’m agreeing to this because I _want_ it. Okay?”

No. It wasn’t okay. Tony could tell by the look in Loki’s eyes that it wasn’t, and that Loki didn’t understand.

“You didn’t seem very keen when we first talked about this,” Loki said slowly. 

“Yes, well. I had time to think about it.”

“Two days?” Loki asked, his tone dry.

“Yep. I’m used to making important decisions quickly. So, what do you say?”

Loki opened his mouth. Then he closed it again. After a few long seconds he shifted, moving to kneel in front of Tony on the bed. There was a flicker of hope in his eyes, but he was still hesitant. “You have to understand that this can’t be undone,” he said, urgent. “If you start to regret it later on, there will be nothing I can do.”

“Yes, I know.” Tony nodded. “But… I want to stay with you. I know that. So even though the whole thing scares me a bit, it… well, it doesn’t really matter if we do this now or in five years, you know? Because it’ll happen, anyway. And I don’t want us to spend all our time together worrying, or dancing around this decision. Does that makes sense?”

“It does,” Loki said, still tentative. “But if you are not completely sure, then -”

“I _am._ ” Tony grinned at him. “You have to be sure too, though. Because if we do this, then you won’t be able to get rid of me. And I can be a real pain in the ass, so. Think about it.”

At first, Loki smiled, but it wavered soon when he realized that Tony was serious. “You really mean that.”

Tony shrugged, suddenly feeling awkward. “‘It’s a big deal for you, too, isn’t it? You should be… sure that you want me.”

“Anthony,” Loki said, very softly. “You can’t really think that not wanting you is a possibility for me.”

“Uh. Well, I _am_ pretty annoying. And -”

Loki leaned forward and cupped his face, kissing him so gently that Tony forgot what he’d wanted to say. He stared at Loki when they pulled apart, and Loki smiled and then said a few sentences that… weren’t English. Again. It sounded - lovely, actually, but Tony still had no idea what Loki was saying.

“What’s that?” he asked, surprised.

Loki chuckled, stroking Tony’s jaw. “It’s Spanish.”

“Spanish,” Tony repeated. “As in Spain?”

“As in Chile, actually. But the language is the same, yes.”

Tony wasn't sure if he'd ever heard of Chile before. He had only heard of Spain from his mother, who had been from Europe and had told him stories about the other continent when he had been a child. Tony could still speak a bit of Italian, but he didn't think that he had ever heard anybody speak Spanish before.

“Huh,” he said after a moment. “Is there a translation?”

Loki nodded slowly, and his gaze dropped to Tony’s mouth. He stroked Tony’s lower lip with his thumb, careful. “‘I crave your mouth,’” he said, his voice low, and kissed Tony briefly. “‘Your voice, your hair. Silent and starving, I prowl through the streets.’”

Tony swallowed thickly. He didn’t know what to say, but Loki didn’t wait for a reply, anyway. He pressed his lips to the corner of his mouth, then to his cheek, and Tony could feel him smile against his chin.

“‘Bread does not nourish me,’” Loki continued, “‘dawn disrupts me’ -”

Tony had to laugh. “Yeah, I bet.”

Loki looked at him and smiled, amusement in his eyes. His hands were on each side of Tony’s neck, and Loki looked down at his own fingers as he trailed them over Tony’s skin. “'All day I hunt for the liquid measure of your steps.'"

His voice was quiet, and Tony barely even heard the last word. Loki swallowed, Adam's apple bobbing, and dragged his eyes back up at meet Tony's.

“Your neck or your wrist?”

 _Oh._ Tony felt his eyes widen and his heartbeat quicken. “We're - now?”

“Only if you're sure,” Loki said, withdrawing his hands. “I will need to drink from a few times for a consort bond to form, so we might as well… But of course we can -”

“No, I'm sure,” Tony said quickly. “My neck. Let's do it.”

He was wearing one of Loki's button-up shirts - he liked wearing Loki's clothes, mainly because Loki _loved_ it. Now Tony reached up to his collar to open the first button, but Loki grabbed his wrists and kissed him, stealing Tony's breath quite effectively.

When they pulled apart again, Loki's eyes were dark, his pupils blown wide. He rested his forehead against Tony's, taking a few breaths he didn't even need.

“‘I hunger for your sleek laugh,’” Loki murmured against Tony's lips. “‘Your hands the color of a savage harvest’ -” He kissed Tony again, then took one of his hands and lifted it up to his lips, smirking at Tony. “‘Hunger for the pale stones of your fingernails. I want’ -”

He pressed his lips firmly to the inside of Tony's wrist, and Tony held his breath. Loki closed his eyes and breathed Tony in, and when he looked at Tony again, the green of his eyes had disappeared. Only black was left, and Tony knew that, if Loki opened his mouth now, his fangs would be visible.

“‘I want to eat your skin like a whole almond,”’ Loki said, his voice rough, and then he dove in and claimed Tony's mouth with his own.

Tony returned the kiss at once, moaning the second when he felt Loki's suddenly sharp teeth against his tongue. Loki all but growled in reaction and pushed Tony back, down into the mattress. Tony's head almost hit the wooden footboard, but he didn't care about that in the slightest, couldn't care about anything except Loki straddling and kissing him, deep and slow and urgent.

When Tony needed to breathe, Loki sat up, but didn't look away from Tony's eyes even once. His lips were parted and Tony could see the tips of his canines, white and pointed. He'd never seen Loki like this before - he'd never seen him look so _hungry,_ and honestly he'd never even really thought about how his blood had to be something Loki just… wanted. He'd never felt like prey in Loki's presence, and he still didn't, but with Loki looking at him like this -

Well, there was a spike of fear, a nervous tingling somewhere in his stomach, but it lasted only a moment before it turned into arousal. Loki might have been one of the most lethal beings on the whole planet, but he was also _Tony's_ \- through and through.

He put his hands on Loki's hips, grinning up at him. “Was that all?”

Loki was distracted; he ran his hands slowly and almost absently over Tony's chest, his eyes filled with that sort of awe that made Tony's head spin. “Hmm?”

Tony didn't even try not to laugh. “That stuff you recited. Was that all?”

Loki raised a brow at him, surprised, but he shook his head. His hands had reached Tony's collar. 

“‘I want to eat the sunbeam flaring in your lovely body,’” he said and kept looking down at his hands as he slowly unbuttoned Tony's shirt, drinking in every patch of skin he revealed. “‘The sovereign nose of your arrogant face.’”

Tony laughed and Loki smiled, showing his teeth. He brushed Tony's shirt aside so that he could touch Tony's now bare chest, unhurried and thorough as if he wanted to index every inch of Tony's body.

“‘I want to eat the fleeting shade of your lashes’…”

Loki's voice was just a low murmur now, and it sent shivers through Tony's spine. Loki noticed and his smile widened; he leaned down to press it on Tony's stomach. 

“‘And I pace around hungry, sniffing the twilight,’” he continued, brushing his nose against Tony's skin while he moved up his body. Tony could feel a flick of Loki's tongue here and there, making him gasp and squirm. “‘Hunting for you, for your hot heart’ -”

A kiss on the spot right where Tony's heart was beating quickly under his skin, then Loki lifted his head and braced himself on the bed, one hand on each side of Tony's head. He looked at Tony, his eyes black and soft and staggeringly _open,_ and Tony forgot how to breathe.

“‘Like a puma in the barrens of Quitratue,’” Loki finished in a whisper.

Tony couldn't stand it anymore. He put his hand on the back of Loki's neck and pulled him down into a kiss. Loki melted into it with a moan, but soon put an end to it to mouth at Tony's jaw instead. Tony could feel Loki's teeth scraping his skin and automatically put his hands on Loki's back, clinging to him. Loki made a soothing sound, his lips on Tony's neck now. Tony lifted his chin, baring his throat without even thinking about it, and the sound Loki made was the most feral thing Tony had ever heard from him. It was also the _hottest_ thing Tony had ever heard and he loved it; he loved having Loki like this, so close and greedy and lacking his usual composure. 

Shit, Tony would have given him everything right now. A few drops of his blood were _nothing._

He was prepared for it when Loki's lips finally found Tony's pulse. Tony had been bitten before, so he braced himself for the searing pain that came with letting someone drink your blood, though to be fair he had never actually _let_ anyone do it before.

As it turned out, that was a simple but important difference.

There was a brief twinge of pain when Loki's teeth pierced Tony's skin, but he didn’t even have time to tell himself to grit his teeth and endure it before a feeling of pure pleasure made his skin tingle. He opened his eyes wide, clutching at Loki and gasping, unsure what was happening, but all Loki did was press closer with a low, pleased sound and keep drinking, his hand on Tony’s shoulder to keep him still. Tony might have been half hard before, but now he was _aching,_ and he went lightheaded with a speed that was going to give him fucking whiplash later, but he did _not_ care about any possible repercussions at the moment.

Because, honestly. This was _amazing._

When Loki eventually pulled black and tenderly licked the bite mark he’d left on Tony’s neck, Tony made a protesting sound that quickly turned into a whine when Loki had the gall to climb off Tony. Tony tried to reach after him, wanting the closeness back, but Loki just hushed him and began taking off Tony’s pants instead. Tony wanted to ask him what the hell he thought he was doing and, more importantly, why he wasn’t fucking Tony already, but he still felt sluggish with pleasure and his tongue was too heavy to speak. That was okay, though, because all desire to complain left him as soon as Loki made himself comfortable between Tony’s legs and proceeded to suck his cock with all the skills and enthusiasm an ancient vampire could muster.

Tony heard a whimper that was probably his own, grasping the bedsheets while he thrust up into Loki’s mouth, too far gone to care about unimportant things like patience or manners. If the way Loki hummed and swallowed around Tony’s cock was anything to go by, he didn’t mind in the slightest. He made Tony come within just a few minutes, and Tony’s mind was blank with bliss for quite some time.

He heard Loki chuckle, and then he was suddenly wrapped up in arms that had started to feel a lot like home in these past weeks. Tony sighed and relaxed into it, ready to sleep for a few hours. Or maybe a few days.

“Rest,” Loki whispered to him, his fingers trailing up and down Tony’s back. “You need it, love.”

Tony agreed wholeheartedly, and so he slept.

///

When he woke up, he wasn’t in one of Loki’s octopus embraces, which was only okay because Tony could still feel Loki right next to him. There was also a cool arm resting on his stomach, and after Tony managed to turn his head and open his bleary eyes, he found himself looking right into Loki’s. 

“Hi,” Tony said. His voice was rough and his mouth terribly dry; he hadn’t been this thirsty in a while.

Loki smiled at him, the look in his now back to green eyes fond and warm. “How do you feel?”

Tony thought about it for a moment, taking in the status of all his limbs and how they felt about being moved. He was sore, and a particular spot on his neck was throbbing a little, but it was the kind of pain that came with being properly and thoroughly fucked, and Tony rather enjoyed it. 

“M’fine,” he told Loki, grinning crookedly. “Congratulations. You managed to fuck my brains out using nothing but your mouth, that’s very impressive.”

Loki’s smile widened and he moved closer, his arm tightening around Tony. “You taste divine,” he said, looking altogether very pleased with the situation.

“Well, thank god. Imagine how awkward this would be if you didn’t like my blood type.”

Loki laughed and kissed Tony, keeping it gentle. Tony leaned into it and reached up to card his fingers through Loki’s hair. Loki practically purred in reaction, but he still broke the kiss. “You should eat and drink something. Can you sit?”

“Of course I can sit, I’m not an invalid,” Tony said, but he did get a bit dizzy when he sat up against the footboard. He blinked. “Oh.”

“Are you alright?”

“Mh. Bit woozy.”

“The blood loss,” Loki said, frowning. “Perhaps I took a little too much. I will be more careful next time. I’m -”

“If you apologize, I’m going to impale you,” Tony interrupted. He’d spotted water on the nightstand and was already making grabby hands. “Give me that.”

Loki looked over his shoulder and then hurried to get both the water and the plate with sandwiches from the nightstand. He must have gone and fetched them while Tony had still been asleep. Tony let out a content sigh as he opened the water bottle and immediately downed about half of it, then shoved the first sandwich into his mouth.

“Slow down a little,” Loki advised him dryly. “If you get sick, I will not be the one cleaning it.”

“Wanna bet?” Tony said with his mouth full, which made Loki roll his eyes.

Tony finished eating, and all the while Loki sat close to him, one of his hands on Tony’s naked thigh. He was always clingy when he let himself, but usually he at least let Tony have a bit of space for himself when he ate. Not that Tony minded - he knew that Loki was worried, and actually it was kind of sweet. What startled Tony a bit was how warm Loki’s hand was. He was used to Loki’s body being cold - a side-effect of being dead -, so Loki’s hand being _warm_ was more than a little odd. And now that Tony looked at him more closely, he could even see a faint hint of red in Loki’s usually so pale cheeks.

Tony let the last sandwich sink, grinning to himself as he looked at Loki. His blood had done that. It was the most beautiful thing.

Loki raised a brow at him. “What?”

Tony shrugged. “I love you,” he said, because he could.

Loki’s amused expression melted into something very amazed and fond, and he cupped Tony’s jaw and softly kissed his cheek. “I love you, too.”

Tony grinned, feeling _incredibly…_ well. Incredible. “When can we do that again?”

That seemed to catch Loki off-guard. “Oh. Well. I need to drink about once a month, but of course I can -”

“Nope. You won’t go around drinking from other people anymore.” Tony grabbed the bottle of water again. “That’s been freaking me out for some time, and now -”

“It has?” Loki asked, apparently confused. 

Tony took a gulp of water, giving Loki a pointed look. “What, you think you’re the only one capable of jealousy?”

Loki blinked slowly, then shook his head. “No. Just - you hid it well.”

“Better than you, that’s certain.” Tony paused. “You’d be okay with - I mean, with only my blood? We can do that, right?”

“Of course,” Loki said, squeezing Tony’s thigh. He seemed somewhat stunned. “You will soon be a lot more resilient, so with enough rest right after, once a month should be no problem.”

Tony had meant it more along the lines of whether Tony’s blood would be enough to keep Loki dead and kicking, but fine. That was apparently no problem, either, given that Loki didn’t even seem to think about it. 

“Nice,” Tony said. “And how soon is ‘soon’?”

“Two or three months, I’d say.” Loki smiled and kissed Tony again, this time his jaw. “Then you’ll be mine.”

Tony snorted. “I’m already yours, genius,” he said and ate the rest of his sandwich. “I let you recite poetry to me, for fuck’s sake.”

Loki hummed, looking at Tony thoughtfully. After a moment he asked, “Do you know poetry?” 

Tony shrugged. “Not really. I mean, I know what it _is,_ and there’s some stuff left on the web. Also Jarvis was a fan of - I keep forgetting his name. Some British guy. Wrote something about existential dread and a skull named Yorick?”

“William Shakespeare,” Loki said at once. “And the play you are talking about is called ‘Hamlet’.”

“You know him?”

Loki laughed. “Oh, yes. He was rather famous before the wars. I should have his works lying around somewhere, if you’re interested.”

“That’d be nice,” Tony said, smiling back at Loki. “You can read it to me.”

“Oh?” Loki cocked his head to one side, amused. “You liked it, didn’t you?”

“Well, duh. It’s your voice. You could read the Bible to me and I’d like it.”

“Is that so.”

Tony had expected Loki to be more smug, but he just seemed thoughtful. Tony gave him a questioning look, but Loki slowly shook his head.

“It’s nothing,” he said, pensive. “I merely… never really understood it before.”

“What do you mean?”

Loki lifted his shoulders. He rested his arm on the footboard and started running his fingers through Tony’s hair. “The poetry,” he explained. “I found it pretty, but also… highly exaggerated. I thought all those poets were just being dramatic.”

“I mean, there was a skull named Yorick,” Tony said. “They were definitely being dramatic.”

“Oh, yes. But there had to be some truth in it, and I always wanted to… find it.” Loki studied Tony, and finally his smile returned. “I think now I have.”

So, what do you say to something like that? Tony didn’t know. The only thing he knew was that he wanted to hug Loki and kiss him, and so Tony did just that.

///

Thor lived in the upper floors of a _very_ high building in the middle of Los Angeles. Loki and Tony appeared right in front of his door, and the first thing Tony did was look around. There was an elevator, but apart from that the hallway was pretty empty. The view was amazing, though.

“Are you ready?” Loki asked him quietly.

Tony glanced back at him and nodded, so Loki raised his hand and lightly knocked at the door. It didn’t take long until the door opened, revealing the tall and bulky vampire Tony immediately recognized as Thor.

“Brother! You’re early!”

Loki sighed. “Yes, Thor, we are. I assume nobody else is here yet?”

Thor shook his head and patted Loki’s shoulder with a force that would have brought a human to their knees. “No, but they will come. I hope you have prepared a good speech, you will need it.”

“Have you met me?”

Thor grinned and then looked down at Tony, his smile dimming a little. Tony could see his fangs, and even though he was more than used to the sight of teeth like that by now, it made him feel a bit uneasy. Apparently, Thor still creeped him out. Tony just didn’t _like_ him.

“Hello,” Thor said, not unfriendly. The first and last time they had seen each other, Thor had barely even looked at Tony, but by now things had obviously changed. “Anthony, isn’t it?”

“Tony,” he corrected and held out his hand.

Thor shook it, his grip surprisingly gentle for a guy his size. “Welcome. Loki told me to apologize for my behaviour towards you the last time we met, so - I’m sorry. Please know that I meant no offense. If I had known you would become my brother’s consort, I would have acted differently.”

 _Yes,_ Tony thought, _that’s a part of the problem._ But they were here to solve that problem, or at least to start looking for solutions, so Tony bit back a comment. Thor didn’t seem unwilling to learn, and if he stopped looking at humans like they were nothing but prey, this might even work. Tony gave him one of his most winning smiles. “Start acting differently now and we’re good.”

“Of course,” Thor said, nodding earnestly, and finally he stepped aside to let them in.

He led him into his home and then upstairs to what looked like some sort of living room. There was a kitchen nook in one corner, and while it all looked about as expensive and sleek as Loki’s house, it was much more cluttered. 

They hadn’t been there for long when a - at least in comparison to Loki and Thor - tiny woman entered the room, looking at Loki like she was not all too pleased to see him.

“Hello, Jane,” Loki greeted her with a charming smile. “It’s nice to see you again.”

“Yes, I’m sure it is,” she said. “I don’t need to tell you to keep your hands off my stuff this time, do I?”

“As if I would ever touch your belongings without permission.”

Yeah, now Loki’s smile was full of shit. Tony kind of adored it. The woman, Jane, came over to greet him, looking at Tony in a manner that was much more friendly.

“Hi, I’m Jane! You’re Tony Stark, right? I've heard about you. I’m -”

“My sister in law,” Tony said, shaking her hand. “Or something.”

“Or something,” she agreed. She looked at him for a moment, then, “You don’t know how Loki’s pocket dimensions work, do you? Because I’ve been trying to get it out of him for _decades,_ and he just won’t tell me.”

Tony thought that over and finally gave Loki a dry look. “That’s why she can’t stand you? You made it sound like you murdered her father or something.”

Loki just shrugged and made his way over to the kitchen to get himself something to drink. 

“Don’t touch my tea,” Jane called after him, but naturally Loki ignored her. She sighed and turned back to Tony, her eyes big and brown and kind. "And it's not - I don't hate him or anything. He's just. Difficult to like. Sometimes."

"Is he?" Tony said. He looked over to Loki, who seemed to have found the tea. Thor had followed him and was talking to him in that kind of whisper that could be heard from across the room, and Loki already seemed annoyed. Tony smiled. "I didn't notice."

At first she seemed abashed, but then she returned his smile. "Good. I mean - I'm happy you found him. Or that you found each other. I've been trying to make Thor understand that it can't go on like this, but he's so _stubborn._ It's like -"

There was a knock at the door. Immediately, Loki appeared at Tony's side, carrying a cup of tea. Tony smiled at him. He knew that Loki was still worried about this, and he'd tried a few times to talk Tony out of coming along.

But Tony wasn't scared. 

Jane and Thor went to open the door, and Tony turned to Loki. "Are you ready?"

Loki nodded and smirked at Tony, eyes glinting. Tony grinned at him. 

If any of the Elders attending tonight wanted to cause trouble, Tony and Loki would give them _hell._

///

Fury and Loki had been talking for about twenty minutes now. Their conversation was pointedly polite and very political, and filled to the brim with subtle insults. It was a bit of a rooster fight, and Tony found it very amusing. Mostly because Loki was winning. (Duh. Of course he was winning.)

The meeting had gone… well. A few days ago, the vampires had decided that they were willing to negotiate, and today the humans had decided the same. It was all thanks to Loki's powers of persuasion - oh, he hadn't used his _charm_ on anyone, but even without he was a damn good negotiator. Watching him smile at Steve Rogers and politely and thoroughly deconstruct all of his arguments was already one of Tony's favorite memories an hour after it had happened.

Tony had suggested using one of his safehouses to meet up and talk, simply because he didn't want to set a foot into the headquarters of SHIELD when it wasn't absolutely necessary. Some people had left already, but quite a few seemed to be glad to stay here and use the chance to talk to each other without having to look over their shoulder every three seconds. Tony knew about half of the people who were still here, and it made him a bit uncomfortable that they were all in _his_ house, but well. He'd simply have to bring all the stuff he still stored here home into the workshop, then maybe he could even leave the doors open for people who needed a safe place to stay for a while.

He kind of wanted to leave, but Loki was still busy verbally wiping the floor with Fury. Nat and Steve were in a corner talking, Clint was inspecting Tony's old weapons (without touching them, because he'd learned that touching them resulted in Tony and therefore also Loki being pissed, and even Clint had understood that pissing of Loki was not a good idea), and Tony had spent the last hour talking to Bruce, glancing at Loki and Fury every once in a while to make sure that there wasn't any blood yet.

It wasn't all too bad, really. Actually, so far it had been going very well. Sure, they were making it up as they went and Tony was still skeptical at times, but right now he thought… well, there was reason to hope that this endeavor wasn't as pointless as it seemed.

"I didn't know it was nap time already."

Tony looked up to see that one of the people he didn't know had approached the sofa Tony and Bruce sat on. Well, Tony sat, Bruce had started dozing off a few minutes ago. (Bruce had two states of matter: nervous and tired. There wasn't anything in between, and he'd been nervous the whole day.)

"It's always nap time when you don't give a damn," Tony said, grinning.

The man was tall and dark-skinned, and Tony needed to take just one look at him to know that he was a hunter himself. His smile was kind, though, the look in his eyes amused when he looked down at Bruce.

"Weird day, huh?"

"The weirdest," Tony agreed. "I've never seen you around before, I think."

"I'm at the East coast, usually," the man said and sat down next Tony. He spoke quietly, taking care not to wake Bruce up. "Fury sent word around."

"Yeah, that's one of his hobbies. So what's your name?"

"James," he said. "James Rhodes. And you're the crazy idiot who's dating the Liesmith."

Tony laughed. _Dating._ Yeah, that was one way to put it.

///

The music was quiet and playful as it flowed through the room. It was raining outside, and Tony was pretty sure that there was a storm coming. He and Loki would probably spent the night down here, then, lazing around in the armchairs in front of the windows and watching the sea. Well, at least until their hands and mouths would find other things to pay attention to.

"This is very nice," Loki said, sitting down on the piano stool next to Tony. "Where have you heard it?"

Tony grinned. He still needed to concentrate to keep his fingers from stumbling on the keys, but he'd made a lot of progress. As it had turned out, he _did_ have a talent for music.

"Nowhere," he said. "It just kinda happened."

Loki was quiet for a moment, but when Tony looked at him he was smiling, his cheeks still dusted with red from when he'd drunk from Tony earlier this evening.

"A composer, hm?" Loki murmured, amused. "Who would have guessed?"

Tony snorted. Loki placed his fingers on the keys and, after listening to Tony play for a while longer, joined in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The poem Loki is reciting ~~like a sap~~ is Pablo Neruda's Love Sonnet XI.
> 
> So! This is it. My hundredth story on here is officially finished.🙌😭 Thanks a lot for reading, I hope you liked it!💕
> 
> Oh, also: yes, they will find a way to make this whole vampire human thing work, but it'll take a lot of negotiating and fighting and making many many small steps. But I didn't feel like writing that, so I didn't. xD


End file.
